DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2023.10.39061

Abstract: The author studied the episode of fraternization by Myshkin and Rogozhin in several aspects: 1) as a specific literary transformation of folk’s legends about fraternization with Christ 2) both as the central episode of the novel’s plot and a reference to its final scene 3) ideologically as a spiritual unit between the protagonists and the Russian folk 4) as a symbolic description of internal contradictions of the Russian national character. The episode is closely connected with the preceding talk about belief in God, in whose course Myshkin refusing to directly answer if he believed in God, tells about his meetings with “common people” and arrives at a conclusion about the chaotic and enigmatic depths of the folk’s consciousness. This was the only discourse about religious belief in the whole Dostoevsky’s Pentateuch preceding “the Brothers Karamazov” which makes Myshkin conclude that religious belief can be obtained from Russian folk as a bearer of religious mission, notwithstanding the dark abyss in his soul. The conclusions based on the analysis lets us rethink and reconstruct Myshkin’s ideological evolution in the whole novel. The article traces Dostoevsky’s reliance on folk legends about fraternization with Christ. It is a pioneering research as it points to parallels with the novel’s final in terms of symbolic gestures, paradoxically completing the rite of exchanging crosses in the second chapter of the novel. Myshkin’s thoughts are proved in the next episode when Rogozhin attempts to kill Myshkin – which would have seemed impossible after the characters exchanged their crosses. Thus the imminent catastrophe outlined in the episode dooms the novel’s final, yet not in terms of religious belief and the author’s dependence on Russian folk.

DOI: 10.25136/2409-8698.2018.1.25264

Abstract: The subject of the research is the image of Venice in Russian poetic texts of the 19th - 20th centuries. The aim of the article is to outline the image of Venice as it is presented in the poetry of the Silver Age, by analyzing the brightest examples of so called 'Venetian' poetry. The authors viewed that poetry as part of the literary tradition and traced back how the perception of the city had been changing over the 19th - 20th centuries, at the same time, they aso analyze the texts they've selected in terms of the writers' ideology using texts by the same authors to clarify the author's message. The authors analyze 'Venetian' texts by Alexander Blok, Nikolay Gumilev, Sergey Gorodetsky and Osip Mandelstam. The author of the article applies the structural analytical method to analyze motifs of 'Venetian' texts and comparative historical method to analyze tranformation of motifs at the diachronic level. The results of the research demonstrate the following: even though poets of the 20th century had very different world views and aesthetic concepts, their images of Venice had a number of typical motifs: transcendence of pure beauty and increasing anxiety of a lyrical hero, tragic perception of the reality and presentiment of death (both of a hero and Venice), and combination of eternity and fragility of the city. Both symbolists and acmeists preferred the image of the night Venice depicted mostly in dark colours. Being an integral phenomenon, the image of Venice had predetermined the modus of each new poetic text that interpreted Venice in its own way while orienting at precedent texts at the same time. 

DOI: 10.7256/2409-8698.2016.3.20054

Abstract: The article attempts to describe the particularities of eventfulness in Dostoevsky’s Pentateuch novels, comparing them with the French ‘pulp novel’ of action, whose genre traditions are extensively exploited by the Russian author.In Dostoevsky studies it has become common to state that Dostoevsky’s novels are saturated with events and are characterized by extreme eventfulness. In fact, the impression is a result of application of certain artistic devises, such as intensification of action expectation. At closer consideration we see that in the novel’s depicted time dramatic dialogues definitely prevail over action.The ‘pulp’ genre substratum of the Pentateuch novels is introduced via motives, mostly in the form of the characters’ background, whereas Dostoevsky’s novels reveal absolutely different architectonics that has nothing to do with a mere synthesis of ‘pulp’ and ‘philosophical’ components, as L. Grossman assumed. In preparatory materials to Dostoevsky’s novels we see a great number of dramatically evolving plots, typical of adventure novel. Since their number is substantially reduced in the final text of Dostoevsky’s novels, we may conclude, that the influence of ‘pulp’ novel being strong, the ‘adventure’ plot proper remains beyond the confines of what is actually depicted in the novel.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0749.2016.2.18424

Abstract: The purpose of the present research is to trace back the mechanism of developing the type of a 'hero-ideologist' in Dostoevsky's fiction after his penal servitude starting from his Notes from Underground and filling in conceptual gaps in particular novels by outlining common typical features and ideas in characters' minds. This allows to analyze Dostoevsky's literary texts written since 1865 until 1880 as a single hypertext. According to the author, the source of future ideas is the 'underground psychology' depriving the hero of the face-to-face communication and 'dreaming' that predetermines 'fanstastic' and 'contemplative' ideas. These ideas may have only two vectors: theantropic ideas that attributes human qualities and emotions to God and ideas that see God as the outward projection of a human's inward nature. While the theantropic idea implies the return of Christ's Kingdom on Earth (Millenium), the main purpose suggested by the other idea is that human can live on Earth alone without God. The transfer from romantic individualism towards a reilgious super-purpose (to save and to 'reshape' the humankind) becomes possible due to the aesthetic element of the idea which serves as some kind of the ideal of beauty and an intermediate link between religious and romantic types of thinking. The idea that God is the human's outward projection creates philosophical subgrounds for crime which can intent to be a murder, political crime, suicide, 'deicide', or patricide, which is supposed to prove the idea and thus gains the sacral meaning in these terms. The author suggests that we should call such a deed 'super-action' because it is designated to change the hero's being and surroundings. The super-action occurs to be the only action the hero-ideologist is capable of. It is the narrative climax and the only important action made by the hero in his life. In the long run, Dostoevsky's heroes-ideologists are the 'one deed heroes' but not the 'one intrigue heroes'. The antithesis to the super-action is the experience of living in paradise which followers of both ideas may have. In his research the author has used hermeneutic, historical literary and comparative typological research methods accompanied with the theological and cultural findings and data. The author's special contribution to the topic is his conclusion about the unity of all heroes-ideologists in Dostoevsky's 'Pentateuch' despite their outward difference. The author also offers a new interpretation of particular ideas presented by Dostoevsky's heroes. For the first time in the academic literature the ideology of Dostoevsky's heroes is being viewed inseparably from their psychological grounds and narrative function. The results of the research can be used to analyze Dostoevsky's fiction as part of University general and special courses as well as at secondary schools.