Download:

PDF

Author: Tatiana A. Kasatkina
Information about the author:

Doctor of Philological Sciences, Head Researcher at the Gorky Institute of World Literature RAS, Head of the Centre “Dostoevsky and World Culture” at the Gorky Institute of World Literature RAS, Head of the Research Committee for Dostoevsky’s Artistic Heritage within the Scientific Council for the History of World Culture RAS (Moscow).

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation:

Kasatkina T.A. Anagogic Story as the Specific Structure of Dostoevsky’s Early “Gnostic” Texts. Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, 2020, No 2(10), pp. 95-115.

Issue: 2020 № 2(10)
Department: POETICS. CONTEXT
Pages: 95-115
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2020-2-95-115
UDK: 821.161.1
BBK: 83+83.3(2=411.2)+86.2
Keywords: Dostoevsky, early works, Gnosticism, image structure, anagogic story, Netochka Nezvanova, White Nights, The Landlady, “A Weak Hearth”.
Abstract: The question about the difference (or the absence of it) between Dostoevsky’s early texts and the works composed after the penal labors have been raised repeatedly. The article proposes a possible explanation of it. The hypothesis here presented and exemplified through the analysis of the novel Netochka Nezvanova should be considered mainly as an invitation to discussion, more than the proposal of a final answer to the problem. The article suggests that we should look for the difference between earlier and later works within the level on which Dostoevsky assembles the material as a coherent storyline. While later works show coherency on an external plot level and reach the deep level of the text by connecting different scenes to episodes of the Sacred History; early works are connotated by extremely incoherent plots, which provoked (and provokes nowadays) many complaints about Dostoevsky’ authorial skills: in fact, the coherent history takes place within a deeper, being-related perspective, while the incoherent episodes of the outer tale are no more than a manifestation on an existential level of the inner “anagogic” story.

References

1. Aksakov K.S. Literaturnaya Kritika [Literary criticism]. Moscow, Sovremennik Publ., 1982. 383 p. (In Russ.)

2. Annenskii I. Izbrannoe [Selected Works]. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1987. 590 p. (In Russ.)

3. Bolotov V.V. Lektsii po istorii drevnei tserkvi [Lectures on the History of the Early Church]. Posthumous edition by A. Brilliantov. Reprint of the publication Saint-Petersburg 1910. Vol. 2. Istoriia tserkvi v period do Konstantina Velikogo [Church History before Constantin the Great]. Moscow, 1994. 509 p. (In Russ.)

4. Dostoevskii F.M. Poln. sobr. soch.: v 30 t. [Complete works: in 30 vols.]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1972–1990. (In Russ.)

5. Pisaniia prepodobnogo ottsa Ioanna Kassiiana Rimlianina [Works by saint John Cassian the Roman]. Translated from Latin by Bishop Piotr. Second Edition. Moscow, Afonskogo russkogo Panteleimonova monastyria Publ., 1892. 652 p. (In Russ.)

6. Kasatkina T.A. O tvoriashchei prirode slova. Ontologichnost’ slova v tvorchestve F.M. Dostoevskogo kak osnova “realizma v vysshem smysle”. [About the creative nature of the word. The ontological status of the word in F.M. Dostoevsky’s works as the base of “realism in its highest sense”]. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2004. 480 p. (In Russ.)

7. Kasatkina T.A. Sviashchennoe v povsednevnom: dvusostavnyi obraz v proizvedeniiakh F.M. Dostoevskogo. [The Sacred in the ordinary: the two-folded image in Dostoevsky’s texts]. Moscow, IMLI RAN Publ., 2015. 528 p. (In Russ.)

8. Kasatkina T.A. Dostoevskii kak filosof i bogoslov: khudozhestvennyi sposob vyskazyvaniia [Dostoevsky Philosopher and Theologian: an Artistic Method of Expression]. Moscow, Vodolei Publ., 2019. 336 p. (In Russ.)

9. Kulianu I. Drevo gnozisa: gnosticheskaya mifologiia ot rannego khristianstva do sovremennogo nigilizma [The gnosis tree: Gnostic mythology from early Christianity to modern nihilism]. Moscow, Kastaliia Publ., 2019. 314 p. (In Russ.)

10. Magaril-Il’iaeva T.G. Proizvedeniia F.M. Dostoevskogo 1840-kh – nachala 1960-kh godov kak “edinyi tekst” [Dostoevsky’s works between 1840s and the beginning of 1860s as a “single text”]. Cand. philol. sci. diss. Moscow, IMLI RAN, 2019. 181 p. (in Russ.)

11. Podosokorsky N.N. Prizraki “Belykh nochei”: mason v pautine posmertiia, maiskaia utoplennitsa i dukh tsaria Solomona [The Ghosts of the White Nights: A Freemason in the Net of Afterlife, The Maiden Drowned in May and the King Solomon’s Spirit]. Dostoevskii i mirovaya kul’tura. Filologicheskii zhurnal [Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal], 2019, No 3. Pp. 88-116. (In Russ.)

12. Tikhomirov B.N. Dva slova ob epigrafe k povesti Dostoevskogo “Belye nochi” [Two Words on the Epigraph to Dostoevsky’s Novel White Nights]. Dostoevskii i mirovaya kul’tura. Al’manakh [Dostoevsky and World Culture. Miscellany]. No.30 (2). Saint-Petersburg, Serebrianyi vek Publ., 2013. Pp. 161-172 (In Russ.)

13. Dostoevskii: sochineniia, pis’ma, dokumenty: Slovar’ spravochnik [Dostoevsky: works, letters, documents: Dictonary reference book]. Ed. by G.K. Shchennikov, B.N. Tikhomirov. SaintPetersburg, Pushkinskii Dom Publ., 2008. 407 p. (In Russ.)

14. Ebbot E. Flatlandia [Flatland]. [Electronic resource] URL: https://royallib.com/book/ ebbott_edvin/flatlandiya.html (Last accessed: 08.05.2020)