Early Romantic Aesthetic Theory and Artistic Practice of Benjamin Constant

The article reconstructs the aesthetics of B. Constant, one of the key figures of the early stage of the formation of French romanticism, the author of one of its first manifestos. The author reveals his aesthetic credo associated with liberalism in his views on society and art, the idea of the self-value of art, its artistic perfection, an increased interest in the national and historical origins of artistic creativity, the local uniqueness, and the character of a romantic hero — sen- sitive, sincere, and at the same time egocentric. It is shown that the vector of Constant’s aesthetic search as one of the creators and theorists of the romantic genres of drama, novel, and novella is directed to the future. He was at the origin of a new direction of French literature — psychological confessional prose. Constant, with his emphasis on the disharmony of the inner world of individuals, deep contrasts between enthusiasm and melancholy, on the one hand, and the sharpened attention to the influence of society on all aspects of human life, including artistic creativity, on the other, not only influenced the next generation of French romantics, but also received a response in Russia in relation to the phenomenon of the “extra person”. His aesthetic theory and artistic practice largely anticipated the tendencies of critical realism in nineteenth-century art and aesthetics.