What is the difference between realism and romanticism?

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As two basic creative methods in the history of literature, realism and romanticism are the combination of realism and romanticism, each with its own characteristics and strengths. They reflect social life from different angles and in different ways, which makes many works with different characteristics, styles and colors appear in ancient literature, enriching the literary treasure house and meeting people's diverse artistic appreciation needs.

In the history of literary development, realism and romanticism are two different creative methods, but they are often linked and combined, not unrelated, mutually exclusive or incompatible.

In the era when the reactionary exploiting classes dominated, there was a contradiction between the people's progressive ideal and the dark social reality. Many writers can't find the social forces and the right way to realize their ideals in their lives, so when they reflect on their lives, they often either focus on exposing the darkness of reality or "prefer to abandon reality and take fantasies and dreams." This is the social and historical reason for the formation of realism and romanticism. However, we should also see that as far as the overall process of historical development is concerned, ideal and reality are unity of opposites. Even in the old society, the dark reality itself aroused people's desire for beautiful ideals, and then guided and inspired people to participate in the struggle to change reality, and then realized people's ideals to varying degrees. Without ideals, there will be no struggle to change reality, and there will be no real revolutionary practice to promote social progress. Therefore, reality and ideal are often unified in the practice of people's revolution. This is the realistic basis that realism and romanticism are often linked together. In the old society, although many writers were far away from the people's struggle, many writers were influenced by the people's struggle to varying degrees, and reflected this struggle with their own works, or expressed the people's wishes and desires to change the status quo to varying degrees. In the history of literature, many works reflecting people's struggles and aspirations often combine realism and romanticism to varying degrees. This is true of Shuo in the Book of Songs, Yuefu folk song Peacock Flying Southeast, opera Dou Eyuan and Peony Pavilion. There are many folklores, such as the story of Yang Jiajiang, the story of Liang Zhu, the story of the legend of White Snake, etc. Both have the spirit of combining realism with romanticism. Especially in the era when the social revolutionary movement is in the ascendant, such as the Renaissance, Enlightenment and bourgeois revolution in Europe, or the May 4th Movement in China, literature, realism and romanticism at that time are often closely linked, and the works of writers involved in the revolutionary vortex or impacted by the revolutionary wave are often a combination of realism and romanticism. This is true of Pushkin in Russia and later revolutionary democratic writers, as well as Lu Xun and Guo Moruo in China.

As far as the writer's subjective aspect is concerned, no progressive writer has no ideal. No matter Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Guan Hanqing, Tang Xianzu, Wu Cheng'en, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Kong, Cao Xueqin and so on. As far as their positive and serious attitude towards society is concerned, they are all realists and as far as their tireless pursuit of ideals is concerned, they are all idealists. In terms of creative methods, as mentioned above, some writers either focus on depicting typical pictures of real life or eulogize their enthusiasm for ideals. But there are also some writers who combine the typical picture of reality with the ideal realm in the same work. This combination may not be organic yet. However, there is no denying that some works are well combined, such as Yuan and Peony Pavilion, which are examples of the combination of realism and romanticism in China classical literature. In the long history of literature, many writers and works are really difficult to be simply classified as realism or romanticism. As Gorky said, there are many great writers in history. "When he said-are they romantics or realists-it is difficult for us to be completely correct. On great artists, realism and romanticism seem to be combined forever. Gorky further affirmed: "This confluence of romanticism and realism is a prominent feature of China's excellent literature, which endows our literature with that kind of originality and strength that is increasingly obvious and profoundly affecting the world literature. "(2) Not only Gorky's point of view, but also Schiller's On Simple Poetry and Sentimental Poetry mentioned earlier mentioned that only when simple poetry and sentimental poetry are closely combined can we produce works that meet the" real aesthetic standards ". The above examples show that the combination of realism and romanticism to some extent is not unique in the history of Chinese and foreign literature. In other words, there are many excellent works in history, which often combine realism and romanticism to varying degrees. Of course, in most cases. The creative methods used in literary works are all focused, such as realism and romanticism. This situation is closely related to the writer's time, personal life experience, creative personality and style, and also related to the theme and genre they choose. There are many reasons, which need specific analysis.

In the history of literature, many writers and critics in ancient China have also done a lot of research and exploration on the situation that realism and romanticism are intertwined or combined to varying degrees. Their exposition of the issues of emptiness and reality in literary creation is very enlightening for us to understand the combination of realism and romanticism. China ancient critics often used "emptiness" and "reality" to express two different methods and styles, represented by Li Bai and Du Fu respectively. Many outstanding writers and critics have realized that emptiness and reality can and should be combined, and both Li Bai and Du Fu can combine emptiness and reality. Tu Long in the Ming Dynasty said: "Gu's poems are empty and real, empty and real, empty and real, real and empty, and wrong, how can they be clues! But the right side is real and the left side is empty. It is said that Du Li's advantages and disadvantages lie in the distinction between reality and reality. What? " It can be said that the author has come into contact with the problem of close relationship between realism and romanticism, although he did not use the words realism and romanticism. Regarding the inseparable relationship between ideal and reality, Wang Guowei once put forward a sentence in modern times: "Where there are conditions, there are conditions. This ideal is differentiated from the realism school. However, it is quite difficult to distinguish the two. The realm created by great poets. It must conform to nature and the writing environment must be adjacent to the ideal. " ①

The tradition of combining realism with romanticism is especially worth cherishing, because combining them can reflect the times more deeply, fully and comprehensively, and it will be more diversified in artistic forms, which often has greater artistic appeal and appeal to readers. Guan Hanqing's The Case of Dou E's Injustice truly reflects the dark reality of the Yuan Dynasty, fully demonstrates the injustice and final justice of the wronged Dou E, and deeply touches millions of readers in Qian Qian. When the author reveals reality, he is full of strong love and hate, and his description of characters and their relationship with reality is full of ideals and enthusiasm. Before the execution, Dou E issued an impassioned curse to the dark society: "Those who do good will live a short life in poverty, while those who do evil will live a rich life": "What is land, regardless of good or bad? Oh, my God, what you said is both smart and stupid! " This ruthless disclosure aroused great anger among people; This earth-shattering voice of resistance has given readers a strong infection and great encouragement.

The tradition of interweaving realism and romanticism in China's classical literature is as long as the history of literature. From myth to modernity, this tradition has been enriched and developed, and its specific manifestations in literary creation are varied. These still need to be carefully studied and summarized. This historical tradition of interweaving realism and romanticism will inevitably undergo fundamental changes on the basis of new reality and thought when it develops into the era of proletarian revolution and socialist construction. After 1942, under the guidance of the literary policy of serving the workers, peasants and soldiers, some excellent works were produced, such as the long poem Wang Gui and Li Xiangxiang, the opera White-haired Girl, and the novel The Tempest. Some of them have obvious tendency of revolutionary realism, while others have obvious tendency of revolutionary romanticism. Others have the characteristics of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism. This just shows that, in the direction of literature and art serving the workers, peasants and soldiers, writers armed with Marxist-Leninist world outlook have begun to explore the creative methods required by the new situation of China revolution. After the national liberation, China entered a historical period of socialist revolution and socialist construction. In this new historical period, with the fundamental changes in the social system, people's social status and mental outlook have also undergone fundamental changes. They work and build. No longer for a few exploiting classes, but to create their own happy life and realize their ideals. Although there are still twists and turns on the road ahead, and even serious setbacks will be encountered, twists and turns and setbacks have educated the people and strengthened their determination to work hard to realize the revolutionary ideal. Because, they know that every concrete and practical work is a ladder to a great ideal. In such a society, there is no longer irreconcilable contradiction between ideal and reality, but can be consistent through revolutionary practice. Building a modern socialist power and realizing the socialist ideal are gradually realized in every practical work and become an indispensable force to inspire people to move forward. In this case, the people's ideological and spiritual productivity has also been liberated. The spiritual shackles imposed on them by private ownership for thousands of years are being gradually broken. The working people are full of confidence and pride in their own strength and the future of the revolution, because they are aware of their status as masters. Therefore, it showed unprecedented heroism and carried forward a high degree of revolutionary heroism and initiative in the process of building socialism.

The victory of our revolution was achieved under the leadership of Mao Zedong Thought, who combined the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of our revolution. Mao Zedong Thought's main feature is that he combines the scientific attitude of seeking truth from facts with the revolutionary vision and spirit, and is good at combining the revolutionary spirit of Marxism-Leninism with the scientific attitude to solve the practical problems of the China revolution in practice. Comrade Mao Zedong also stressed the need to combine the theory of continuous revolution with the theory of stages of revolutionary development. He adhered to the spirit of the * * * Party Manifesto, and clearly pointed out that "* * Party members strive for the short-term goals and interests of the working class in the current movement, but at the same time represent the future of the movement", teaching us that any revolutionary work must combine grand ideals with current actual struggles, and we can neither forget today nor see tomorrow. Today opens the way for tomorrow, and tomorrow is the inevitable result of today's revolutionary development. This idea is the guidance of all work, as well as literary work. Based on the above ideas, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward a creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism in 1958 according to the historical experience of China literature development and the creative experience of China revolutionary literature since the May 4th Movement, the new situation of socialist revolution and socialist construction after liberation and the practical experience of revolutionary literature creation, and at the same time absorbing the advanced experience of international proletarian literature.

The basic requirement of the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism is to advocate the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism, so as to "dialectically unify the two artistic methods of realism and romanticism in literature and art, so as to be more conducive to expressing our times today, fully absorb all the fine traditions in the literary and artistic heritage, and give full play to the different personalities and styles of writers and artists".

Then, what are the basic requirements for the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism?

First of all, the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism requires writers to consciously unify their ideals and reality in their creation. The so-called revolutionary romanticism is actually revolutionary idealism. It can be said that the organic combination of revolutionary ideal and objective reality is the basic feature of the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism. It requires writers to understand and summarize life from real life and a certain ideal height, that is, to express their ideals from the realistic revolutionary development and to integrate the revolutionary ideals into the realistic description. The creation of excellent writers is always guided by certain ideals, but for writers in the past, ideals and reality are often difficult to unify, which is reflected in the creation of some writers, and ideals are often utopian. At the same time, in a society dominated by the exploiting classes, people's revolutionary ideals are often suppressed and destroyed, which is impossible to achieve in real life. This also affects the unity of ideal and reality. In socialist society, ideal and reality can be unified in the struggle of contradictions. Under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, proletarian writers have the ideal of * * * production, can reveal their essence and development trend from the development of real life, and can organically unify the description of rich and complicated real life with the lofty ideal of showing the people to transform the old world and build a new world. Comrade Mao Zedong's seven revolutionary poems, such as Long March, Remembering Qin E Loushanguan, Niannujiao Kunlun and Liang Zhu Answering Li Shuyi, are works combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism. In these poems, the poet combines the vivid description of reality with the expression of lofty revolutionary ideals, which has a strong artistic appeal and inspiring and inspiring power. In the novel History of Entrepreneurship, because the author describes the real life in rural areas during the period of mutual assistance and cooperation from the ideal height of the proletariat, he can profoundly describe the revolutionary development of reality and reveal the development trend of life at the same time. When describing the revolutionary situation in Toad Beach, the author vividly and fully demonstrated the irresistible strength and vitality of agricultural collectivization, which made readers deeply feel that the bright future of agricultural collectivization was the inevitable trend of rural contradictions and struggles at that time.

We say that the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism requires the combination of expressing ideals and reflecting reality, revealing the internal contradictions in life and expressing the prospect of contradictory struggle. This is because the revolutionary ideal can only be better expressed through the internal development of life contradictions. It is not something divorced from life, but the inevitable result of life development, and it is a great force to inspire people to struggle and push life forward. We don't need to add an ideal outside the picture of life, but through the true description of the revolutionary development of life, we can reflect the light of the ideal and the way to realize it. For the proletariat, all kinds of contradictions and difficulties in life need not be avoided, on the contrary, they need to be bravely exposed. Because only by facing the reality, down-to-earth, seriously solving the contradictions in real life and overcoming difficulties can the ideal realm be gradually realized. In fact, only such works are authentic, which can cultivate readers' qualities of not being afraid of difficulties, daring to struggle and daring to win. If we leave the truth of life, avoid contradictions, whitewash reality, write life without any twists and turns, and turn ideals into cheap rhetoric, the result will only lead to the bad atmosphere of boasting, empty talk and lying in creation, which is very harmful to literary creation and readers. On the other hand, if you only write about contradictions and difficulties, you will not see the bright future of life, and you will lack the power to inspire and inspire readers.

In a word, the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism must proceed from real life, and at the same time it is not a simple life recorder; Based on revolutionary realism and led by revolutionary romanticism, it is the basic requirement of this creative method to organically unify the vivid description of reality and the revelation of ideals.

Secondly, the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism requires writers to strive to express new figures in the new era and criticize reactionary and backward forces and various negative phenomena. In every era and class, literature is required to express the heroes of its own era and shape the representatives of its own class in different historical periods. In this regard, the past literature has left us with valuable experience. However, whether it is realistic literature or romantic literature in the past, due to objective historical conditions and class restrictions, the protagonists are often in irreconcilable contradictions with the times, the collective and the masses. In socialist society, the situation is different. Individuals and collectives, heroes and the masses can and should be unified. The socialist system has opened up a vast world for the all-round development of personality; And the real heroes also come from the masses. The appearance of new characters puts forward new requirements for writers: correctly representing the new generation, reflecting the new characters in the realistic contradiction struggle, and showing the revolutionary ideal and historical development trend of the proletariat by singing praises to the new era and new characters.

The hero of the proletariat is the hero of collectivism. They emerged from the masses and grew up under the education of the party, becoming strong fighters of the party and leaders or backbones of the masses. They put the interests of the party and the masses above everything else and fought for them all their lives. They learn from the masses with an open mind, listen to their opinions, concentrate their wisdom and push forward the revolutionary cause. Although they also have ideological contradictions, shortcomings and even mistakes, they are completely loyal to the party and the people, their frank and selfless character of being happy when they hear the news, their style of being close to the masses and sincerely loving the people around them, so that they have won the trust of the masses, become their beloved leaders and push them forward together. Today, writers don't need to create such characters out of thin air, they are active in real life. They shine with the brilliance of * * * ideals and become advanced forces to push forward the times. Such a newcomer has nothing in common with the individualistic "hero" who stands above the masses advocated by the bourgeoisie and the character with split personality. Of course, praising the heroes of our time does not require writers to write natural "saints" divorced from real life, to write perfect, tall and perfect heroes, and to write pure "perfect people" without any shortcomings and growth and development process. This character does not exist in real life. For proletarian writers, the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism is to correctly express the relationship between heroes and the masses, and truly describe the struggle course and spiritual outlook of heroes in our time, as well as their distinctive and diverse personalities. In this regard, Red Rock and other works that reflect the struggle of revolutionary martyrs provide us with useful experience.

Then, can we use the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism to criticize the reactionary forces and negative figures in the old world and today's world, including the backwardness, reactionary forces and all negative phenomena in socialist society? Undoubtedly, this is not only possible, but also necessary. Comrade Mao Zedong said: "All the dark forces that endanger the people must be exposed, and all the people's revolutionary struggles must be celebrated. This is the basic task of revolutionary writers and artists. " In the socialist era, revolutionary literary and art workers can not only use the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism to praise the new era and new figures, but also use it to expose and criticize reactionary and backward forces and all negative phenomena, which is the basic task of literary and art workers in the socialist era. Of course, there are two different kinds of exposure and criticism: one is the enemy of the people and socialism, and the other is the criticism of the mistakes, shortcomings and all backward and negative phenomena among the people. Different in nature, attitudes, methods and discretion should also be different. We must never treat the problems among the people with the attitude and method of treating the enemy. Using two combined creative methods to write revealing and critical themes can also give play to the positive role of proletarian literature and art in educating the people.

Third, the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism requires the unity of tendentiousness and authenticity in literary works. In class society, all literature and art consciously or unconsciously show certain ideological (or political) tendencies to varying degrees. It's just that some works are obviously outstanding, and some works are not so obvious. This is because a writer's political stance, viewpoints and attitudes are always directly or indirectly expressed in his own creation, and it is impossible not to show them. At the same time, literature and art reflect life through images, and there is a question whether it is true or not between it and life. Or it reflects some essential aspects of life and has certain authenticity; Or it distorts real life and has no authenticity. Successful literary works in the past always profoundly reflect some essential aspects of life, and their ideological tendency should be said to be good. However, due to the limitation of subjective and objective conditions, although some works reflect some essential aspects of life, the subjective thoughts and feelings of the author expressed in the works are not completely correct, and some are even wrong. Although some works are very tendentious, they lack real and vivid images and rich flavor of life. The tendentiousness and authenticity of such works cannot be said to be completely unified. As for reactionary writers, the interests they represent are contrary to the fundamental interests of the broad masses of the people, to the laws of historical development and to the objective reality, so the political inclination and authenticity of their works cannot be unified. Proletarian politics is class politics, mass politics and represents the interests of millions of people. When a writer works from the standpoint of the proletariat, he can deeply understand and reflect the revolutionary practice of millions of people and the law of objective life development, thus unifying the ideological (or political) tendency and authenticity of his works.

The creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism requires the dialectical unity of tendentiousness and authenticity of works. Because progress and revolutionary tendency can make writers reflect life more truly, face the real performance of life directly, and make revolutionary tendency more convincing. Any statement that revolutionary tendencies are against truth is wrong.

The above are the basic requirements of the creative method combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism. Like any creative method in history, it is produced in practice and needs to be constantly improved, enriched and developed in practice.

To advocate the combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, we should not only comprehensively inherit the excellent traditions of realism and romanticism in the history of China literature, but also innovate and create to achieve newer and higher development, so as to make it suitable for expressing the new era and new social life. There is still a lot of work to be done in this regard. We should fully study the literary traditions of realism and romanticism in China, and sum up the achievements and experiences of outstanding writers who combined realism and romanticism or used them unevenly in the past. In the long history of China's literary development, there are both brilliant realistic literary traditions and brilliant romantic literary traditions, and there are also many successful examples of combining these two methods. Encouraging writers to use the creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism is conducive to inheriting our nation's literary heritage and tradition more systematically and comprehensively, drawing rich nutrients from it and creating more brilliant new socialist literature under the new historical conditions.

The creative method of combining revolutionary realism with revolutionary romanticism has also opened up a broad road and a broad world for better exerting the writer's creative personality and style. It is conducive to the consistency of political direction and the dialectical unity of the diversity of literary forms, styles and themes. The combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism is not only conducive to better implementing the direction that literature and art serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, the broadest masses of the people and socialism, but also conducive to better implementing the policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend" and unifying it in creative practice. This creative method is also conducive to encouraging writers to innovate in various ways and ways on the basis of comprehensively criticizing and inheriting the literary tradition, so as to give full play to the enthusiasm and originality of writers, thus making the new socialist literature more colorful and diverse in style. The writer is guided by the Marxist-Leninist world outlook. We can explore various ways to combine realism and romanticism according to our personal specialties and preferences. In specific creation, every writer can exert his originality and actively strive for the richness and splendor of our socialist literature.