Creativity Mayakovsky. Satire in the work of Mayakovsky

No other works of Russian poets are so abound with irony and ridicule as Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky's work. The satire of the writer is unusually acute, topical and mostly socially directed.

Biographical information

Mayakovsky's birthplace was Georgia. It was there, in the village of Bagdadi, that the future poet was born on July 17, 1893. In 1906, after the death of his father, he moved to Moscow with his mother and sisters. For an active political position several times falls into prison. Ends Stroganov School. Even in his student years the futuristic way of Mayakovsky begins. Satire - along with epatage and bravado - becomes a distinctive feature of his poetry.

However, Futurism, with its nihilistic protest, could not fully absorb the full force of the writer's words of Mayakovsky, and the themes of his poems quickly began to go beyond the chosen direction. More and more there was a social implication in them. The pre-revolutionary period in Mayakovsky's poetry has two clearly pronounced directions: expository-satirical, revealing all the shortcomings and vices of tsarist Russia; Fatal, for which terrible reality destroys a person who embodies the ideal of democracy and humanism.

Thus, satire in the works of Mayakovsky at the earliest stages of creativity became the distinctive feature of the poet among comrades in the literary shop.

What is Futurism?

The word "futurism" is derived from the Latin futurum, meaning "future". This is how the avant-garde trend of the beginning of the 20th century is called, characterized by the negation of past achievements and the desire to create something radically new in art.

Features of Futurism:

• Anarchy and rebelliousness.
• Denial of cultural heritage.
• Cultivation of progress and industry.
• Epatage and pathos.
• Denial of established norms of versification.
• Experiments in the field of versification with rhyme, rhythm, orientation on slogans.
• Create new words.

All these principles are best reflected in the poetry of Mayakovsky. Satire organically integrates into these innovations and creates a unique style inherent in the poet.

What is satire?

Satire is a method of artistic description of reality, whose task is to denounce, ridicule, impartial criticism of social phenomena. Satire most often uses hyperbole and grotesque to create a distorted conditional image that personifies the unsightly side of reality. Its main characteristic feature is a pronounced negative attitude towards the depicted person.

The aesthetic orientation of satire is the cultivation of the main humanistic values: kindness, justice, truth, beauty.

In Russian literature, satire has a deep history, its roots can already be found in folklore, later it migrated to the pages of books thanks to AP Sumarokov, DI Fonvizin and many others. In the twentieth century, the power of Mayakovsky's satire in poetry knows no equal.

Satire in verse

Already in the early stages of creativity, Vladimir Mayakovsky collaborated with the magazines "New Satyricon" and "Satyricon". The satire of this period has a touch of romanticism and is directed against the bourgeoisie. The poet's early poems are often compared with Lermontov's because of the opposition of the author's "I" to the surrounding society, because of a pronounced loneliness riot. Although in them the satire of Mayakovsky is clearly present. Poems are close to futuristic settings, very original. Among them you can name: "Nate!", "Hymn to the scientist", "Hymn to the judge", "Hymn to dinner", etc. Already in the very names of the works, especially the "hymns", irony is heard.

Post-revolutionary creativity Mayakovsky dramatically changes its focus. Now his heroes are not well-fed bourgeois, but enemies of the revolution. Poems are supplemented with slogans and agitation posters reflecting the surrounding changes. Here the poet showed himself as an artist, as many works consisted of verse and drawing. These posters were included in the series "windows of GROWTH". Their characters are irresponsible peasants and workers, whiteguards and bourgeois. Many posters reveal the vices of modernity that have remained from a past life, since post-revolutionary society seems to be the Mayakovsky ideal, and everything bad in it is the remnants of the past.

Among the most famous works, where the satyr Mayakovsky reaches its apogee, are the poems "Prozadedavshiesya", "About rubbish" "Poem about Butcher, about the woman and about the all-Russian scale." The poet uses the grotesque to create absurd situations and often comes from a position of reason and a common understanding of reality. All the power of Mayakovsky's satire is aimed at exposing the shortcomings and deformities of the surrounding world.

Satire in plays

Satire in the work of Mayakovsky is not limited to poems, it manifested itself in plays, becoming for them a semantic center. The most famous of them are "Bedbug" and "Bathhouse".

The play "Bath" was written in 1930, and already with the definition of its genre authorial irony begins: "drama in six acts with a circus and fireworks". Its conflict consists in the confrontation of the official Pobedonosikov and the inventor Chudakov. The work itself is perceived easily and amusingly, but it shows the struggle against a senseless and ruthless bureaucratic machine. The conflict of the play is solved very simply: from the future comes the "phosphorous woman" and takes the best representatives of humanity with them, where communism reigns, and the bureaucrats remain with nothing.

The play "Bedbug" was written in 1929, and in its villages Mayakovsky is waging war with the petty bourgeoisie. The protagonist, Pierre Skripkin, after a failed wedding marvelously falls into the communist future. It is impossible to clearly understand the attitude to this world of Mayakovsky. The satire of the poet mercilessly ridicules his shortcomings: the work is done by machines, love is uprooted ... Skripkin seems to be the most living and real person here. Under his influence, society is gradually beginning to collapse.

Conclusion

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky becomes a worthy continuer of the traditions of ME Saltykov-Shchedrin and Nikolai Gogol. In verse and plays, he manages to accurately identify all the "ulcers" and shortcomings of the contemporary writer of society. Satire in Mayakovsky's works bears a pronounced focus on the struggle against philistinism, the bourgeoisie, bureaucracy, the absurdity of the surrounding world and its laws.