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 A.M.GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Povarskaya 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia
fedor@dostmirkult.ru

ISSN 2619-0311 (Print)
ISSN 2712-8512 (Online)

Repetition of the Realities and Concepts of the Author's Book in a Character's Work: A Shift in Perspective and Distortion of Perception (Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot)

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  • Author: Tatiana A. Kasatkina
  • Information about the author:

    DSc in Philology, Director of Research, Head of the Research Centre "Dostoevsky and World Culture," A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

    https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0875-067X

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

    The research was carried out at IWL RAS with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 25-18-00009: "Characters' Writings, Languages, and Readings in Dostoevsky's Mature Works (1859-1881)."
  • For citation:

    Kasatkina, T.A. "Repetition of the Realities and Concepts of the Author's Book in a Character's Work: A Shift in Perspective and Distortion of Perception (Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot)." Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 3 (35), 2026, pp. 36-54. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2026-3-36-54
  • Received: 19 June 2026
  • Approved after reviewing: 21 July 2026
  • Published: 25 Sept. 2026
  • Issue: 2026 no. 3 (35)
  • Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING
  • Pages: 36-54
  • DOI: Visit Website
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/DFEDZS
  • UDK: 821.161.1.0+82.0
  • BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)+83
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • Keywords: Dostoevsky, The Idiot, characters' writings, genre classifications of characters' writings, characters' philosophical systems and the ways in which they are presented, ways of expressing the author's position
  • Abstract: In Dostoevsky's works, the manner in which a character presents his vision of the principles governing the structure of the world is invariably significant. The external form ofthis presentation–whether it takes place as a general conversation or a solo reading, a discussion of an article written by the character, a quotation from a book published by the character, a retelling of a "poem" composed by the character with the listener asking questions during the retelling, and so forth–makes it possible to discern the author's position toward the principles being expounded. In The Idiot, the first and second volumes of the author's lifetime edition (Parts One and Three of the novel, respectively) begin with the characters' exposition of their principles governing the structure of the world: Prince Myshkin in the first volume and Ippolit in the second. The characters provide answers to the same questions, yet it is not only their answers that differ, but also the manner in which they present them. Myshkin responds to questions spontaneously posed to him by his interlocutors over breakfast and coffee, which in no way diminishes either the level of the conversation or the responsibility of his answers. Ippolit, by contrast, arrives with a finished and carefully wrapped composition bearing a red seal on its wrapper; he reads it without looking up at his listeners, confronting them with a choice: reading or refreshments. These seemingly incidental circumstances surrounding the characters' declarations of their principles governing the structure of the world and the position of the human being within it prove decisive both for the very substance of these principles and for the expression of the author's attitude toward them. The article examines the conclusions that can be drawn from the manner in which the characters articulate their profession de foi.

References

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