The Gnostic Myth in Dostoevsky’s Story The Landlady

Download:

PDF
Author: Tatiana G. Magaril-Il’iaeva
Information about the author:

Associate Researcher, Research Centre “Dostoevsky and World Culture,” А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7521-1898

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

Magaril-Il’iaeva, T.G. “The Gnostic Myth in Dostoevsky’s Story The Landlady.” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 1 (21), 2023, pp. 38–61. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2023-1-38-61
Received: 19 Feb. 2023
Published: 25 March 2023
Issue: 2023 no. 1 (21)
Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING
Pages: 38-61
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2023-1-38-61
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/XBSBDY
UDK: 821.161.1.0
BBK: 83.3
Keywords: Dostoevsky, The Landlady, Gnosticism, “Hymn of the Pearl.”
Abstract: The article demonstrates how the gnostic paradigm, in which Dostoevsky formed the problems of his early work, is present in the story The Landlady. It is proven that the central plot of the story (Ordynov’s meeting with Katerina and Murin) is based on the writer’s reinterpretation of the metaphorical plot of “The Hymn of the Pearl,” a parable included in the apocryphal acts by the Apostle Thomas. The parable metaphorically recounts the journey of a spiritual man (pneumatic) in a world of matter created and controlled by the Demiurge. This type of person contains the spirit, a particle of the true divine world of the Pleroma. Once in the world of matter, “eating its food,” the spirit is intoxicated and forgets about its true origin. The task of the spiritual man, according to the parable, is to remember that his true home is the Pleroma, and to return to it he must free the Pearl (the divine soul), seized by the serpent (the Demiurge, the ruler of the matter). According to researchers, the imagery of the parable had a great influence on mystical philosophy and art, which flourished, in particular, at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Dostoevsky places the sacred history, presented in myth as in its ideal embodiment, in the reality visible to him, where people are cut off from one another, where passion dominates “unchosen love,” and where the connection with the true Father is lost. Even those who have been given the opportunity to see more than the rest find themselves, at this stage of Dostoevsky’s comprehension of the mystery of man, not strong enough to defeat the serpent.

References

1. Bem, A.L. “Dramatizatsiia breda (‘Khoziaika’ Dostoevskogo)” [“The Dramatization of Delirious (Dostoevsky’s The Landlady)”]. Issledovaniia. Pis’ma o literature [Research. Letters on Literature]. Ed. by S.G. Bocharov; pref. and comm. by S.G. Bocharov and I.Z. Surat. Moscow, Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury Publ., 2001, pp. 264–326. (In Russ.)

2. Berdiaev, N.A. “Mirosozertsanie Dostoevskogo” [“Dostoevsky’s Worldview”]. Russkaia ideia. Mirosozertsanie Dostoevskogo [The Russian Idea. Dostoevsky’s Worldview]. Moscow, E Publ., 2016, pp. 311–510. (In Russ.)

3. Vaiskopf, M. Vliublennyi demiurg: Metafizika i erotica russkogo romantizma [The Demiurge in Love: Metaphisics and Erotics of Russian Romantism]. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2012. 696 p. (In Russ.)

4. Evlampiev, I.V. “Povest’ ‘Khoziaika’ v kontekste religiozno-filosofskikh iskanii F.M. Dostoevskogo” [“The Story The Landlady in the Context of Religious and Philosophical Searches of F.M. Dostoevsky”]. Tsennosti i smysl, no. 6 (9), 2010, pp. 77–89. (In Russ.)

5. Irenaeus. Protiv eresei. Dokazatel’stvo apostol’skoi propovedi [Against Heresies. Proof of the Apostolic Preaching]. 3rd Edition, revised. St. Petersburg, Pal’mira Publ., 2017. 638 p. (In Russ.)

6. Jonas, H. Gnostitsism (Gnosticheskhaia religiia) [Gnosticism. (Gnostic Religion)]. St. Petersburg, Lan’ Publ., 1998. 384 p. (In Russ.)

7. Kasatkina, T.A. O tvoriashchei prirode slova. Ontologichnost’ slova v tvorchestve F.M. Dostoevskogo kak osnova “realizma v vyschem smysle” [On the Poietic Nature the Word. The Ontology of the Word in the Work of F.M. Dostoevsky as the Fundament of “Realism in a Higher Sense”]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2004. 480 p. (In Russ.)

8. Kasatkina, T.A. “Chto takoe ‘operativnaia poetika’?” [“What is ‘operative poetics’?”]. Sviashchennoe v povsednevnom. Dvusostavnyi obraz v proizvedeniiakh F.M. Dostoevskogo [The Sacred in the Ordinary. The Two-Folded Image in Dostoevsky’s Works]. Moscow, IWL RAS, 2015, pp. 217–230. (In Russ.)

9. Kasatkina, T.A. “Osobennosti struktury rannikh ‘gnosticheskikh’ tekstov Dostoevskii: Anagogicheskaia istoriia” [“Anagogic Story as the Specific Structure of Dostoevsky’s Early ‘Gnostic’ Texts”]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul’tura. Filologicheskii zhurnal, no. 2 (10), 2020, pp. 95–115. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2020-2-95-115

10. Kasatkina, T.A. “Smert’, novaia zemlia i novaia priroda v romane F.M. Dostoevskogo ‘Idiot’” [“Death, New Land, and New Nature in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot”]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul’tura. Filologicheskii zhurnal, no. 3 (11), 2020, pp. 16–39. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2020-3-16-39

11. Magaril-Il’iaeva, T.G. “F.M. Dostoevskii i Vl. Solov’ev: smysl liubvi” [“Fyodor Dostoevsky and Vladimir Solov’ev: The Meaning of Love”]. Takho-Godi, E.A., editor. Literatura i religiozno-filosofskaia mysl’ kontsa XIX — pervoi treti XX veka. K 165-letiiu Vl. Solov’eva [Literature and Religious-Philosophical Thought at the End of 19th – First Third of the 20th Century. For Vl. Solov’ev 165th Anniversary]. Moscow, Volodei Publ., 2018, pp. 287–295. (In Russ.)

12. Magaril-Il’iaeva, T.G. “Fel’etony 1847 goda kak ‘tolkovyi slovar’’ filosofii rannego tvorchestva F.M. Dostoevskogo” [“1847 Feuilletons as an ‘Explanatory Dictionary’ of the Philosophy of Dostoevsky’s Early Works”]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul’tura. Filologicheskii zhurnal, no. 4 (16), 2021, pp. 24–41. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2021-4-24-41

13. Magaril-Il’iaeva, T.G. “Rasskaz F.M. Dostoevskogo ‘Malen’kii geroi’ kak initsiaticheskii tekst” [“Fyodor Dostoevsky’s ‘A Little Hero’ as an Initiatory Text”]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul’tura. Filologicheskii zhurnal, no. 2 (18), 2022, pp. 18–39. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2022-2-18-39

14. Moskvina, E.V. “Gnosticheskii mif o salvator salvatus i ego elementy v romane F.M. Dostoevskogo ‘Idiot’” [“The Gnostic Myth about salvator salvatus and Its Elements in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot”]. Dostoevskii i mirovaia kul’tura. Filologicheskii zhurnal, no. 3, 2018, pp. 69–91. (In Russ.)

15. Meshcherskii, N.A., and Meshcherskaia, E.N. “‘Zhemchiuzhna dusha’ v ‘Slove o polku Igoreve”” [“The ‘Pearl Soul’ in The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”]. Issledovaniia po drevnei i novoi literature [Research on Ancient and New Literature]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1987, pp. 144–147. (In Russ.)

16. Meshcherskaia, E.N. Deiania Iudy Fomy (kul’turno-istoricheskaia obuslovennost’ rannesiriiskoi legendy) [The Acts of Judas Thomas (Cultural and Historical Implications of the Early Syriac Legend)]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1990. 243 p. (In Russ.)

17. Pesn’ o Zhemchuzhine [The Hymn of the Pearl]. URL: http://apokrif.fullweb.ru/apocryph1/gimn.shtml (Accessed 05 Feb. 2023) (In Russ.)

18. Safronova, E.Iu. “Nravstvenno-psikhologicheskie aspekty kriminal’nykh motivov v povesti F.M. Dostoevskogo ‘Khoziaika’” [“Moral and Psychologic Aspects of Criminal Motifs in Dostoevsky’s Story The Landlady”]. Filologiia i chelovek, no. 1, 2013, pp. 19–31. (In Russ.)

19. Stepanian, K.A. “Kartina mira v rannem tvorchestve Dostoevskogo” [“Worldview in Dostoevsky’s Early Works”]. Iavlenie i dialog v romanakh F.M. Dostoevskogo [Phenomena and Dialogue in Dostoevsky’s Early Novels]. St. Petersburg, Kriga Publ., 2010, pp. 92–122. (In Russ.)

20. Tikhomirov, B.N. “… Ia zanimaius’ etoi tainoi, ibo khochu byt’ chelovekom” [“… I Study This Mistery, Because I Want to Be a Man”]. St. Petersburg, Serebrianyi vek Publ., 2012. 504 p. (In Russ.)

21. Iakovenko, I.G., and Muzykantskii, A.I. Manikheistvo i gnostitsism: kul’turnye kody russkoi tsivilizatsii [Manichaeism and Gnosticism: Cultural Codes of Russian Civilization]. Moscow, Russkii put’ Publ, 2010. 320 p. (In Russ.)

22. Balzac, Honoré de. Seraphita. URL: https://beq.ebooksgratuits.com/balzac/Balzac-86.pdf (Accessed 04 Apr. 2022) (In French)

Reference list of audio sources

Kasatkina, T.A. “‘Khoziaika’: gnosticheskii tekst F.M. Dostoevskogo. Seminar dlia uchiteleifilologov v Velikom Novgorode” [“The Landlady: A Gnostic Text by F.M. Dostoevsky. Seminar for Teachers of Philology in Veliky Novgorod”]. philologist.livejournal.com, 08 Oct. 2012, https://philologist.livejournal.com/7711555.html (Accessed 05 Feb. 2023) (In Russ.)