“Restoring the Kinship”: the Novel The Adolescent as a Prologue to the Dialogue Between Nikolay Fedorov and Fyodor Dostoevsky

Download:

PDF
Author: Anastasia G. Gacheva
Information about the author:

Dsc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya 25 a, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5453-0881

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

Gacheva, A.G. “‘Restoring the Kinship’: the Novel The Adolescent as a Prologue to the Dialogue Between Nikolay Fedorov and Fyodor Dostoevsky”. Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 4 (16), 2021, pp. 58–87. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2021-4-58-87
Received: 29 Aug. 2021
Published: 25 Dec. 2021
Issue: 2021 no. 4 (16)
Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING
Pages: 58-87
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2021-4-58-87
UDK: 821.161.1.0
BBK: 84 (2 Рос=Рус)
Keywords: spiritual and creative dialogue between Nikolay Fedorov and Fyodor Dostoevsky, themes of the novel The Adolescent, kinship, non-kinship, sonship, fatherland, brotherhood, family as a crucible of kinship.
Abstract: The article is an attempt to read the novel The Adolescent in the light of the spiritual and creative dialogue between the philosopher of the common task Nikolay Fedorov and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Although The Adolescent was written and published three years before Fedorov’s student N. Peterson presented his teacher’s ideas to the writer in the article “What should a people’s school be?”, the novel can be considered as a prologue to the topic that eventually became the subject of Fedorov’s main work The question of brotherhood or kinship, about the causes of the non-fraternal, unrelated, i.e. non-peaceful, state of the world, and about the means to restore kinship. The plot of the novel is interpreted in the article through the prism of Fedorov’s themes of non-kinship and the restoration of universal kinship, the idea of returning the hearts of sons to their fathers and the fathers’ ones to their children. It is shown how the theme of “family as the practical beginning of love” is expressed in the novel.

Acknowledgments: The reported study was carried out at the A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature RAS and funded by the Russian Sciences Foundation (RSF), project no. 17-18-01432-П.

 

References

1. Barsht, K.A. “‘Nauchite menia liubvi…’. K voprosu o N.F. Fedorove i F.M. Dostoevskom” [“‘Teach Me Love’. On the Question of Nikolay Fedorov and Fedor Dostoevsky”]. Prostor, no. 7, 1989, pp. 159–167. (In Russ.)

2. Bakhtin, M.M. Sobranie sochinenii: v 7 tomakh [Collected Works: in 7 vols], vol. 6. Moscow, Russkie slovari; Iazyki slavianskoi kul’tury Publ., 2002. 799 p. (In Russ.)

3. Bocharov, S.G. “‘O bessmyslennaia vechnost’!’. Ot ‘Nedonoska’ k ‘Idiotu’” [“‘Oh, Meaningless Eternity!’ From ‘Nedonosok’ to ‘Idiot’”]. Filologicheskie siuzhety [Philological Subjects], Moscow, Iazyki slavianskikh kul’tur Publ., 2007, pp. 263–292. (In Russ.)

4. Gacheva, A.G. F.M. Dostoevskii i N.F. Fedorov: Vstrechi v russkoi kul’ture [F.M. Dostoevsky and N.F. Fedorov: Meetings in Russian Culture]. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2008. 576 p. (In Russ.)

5. Gorskii, A.K. Sochineniia i pis’ma: v 2 knigakh [Works and Letters: in 2 books], Book 2. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2018. 1008 p. (In Russ.)

6. Dostoevskii, F.M. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 30 tomakh [Complete Works: in 30 vols]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1972–1990. (In Russ.)

7. Komarovich, V.L. “Ottseubiistvo i uchenie N.F. Fedorova o ‘telesnom voskreshenii’” [“Parricide and Nikolay Fedorov’s Teaching about the ‘Resurrection of the Body’”]. “Ves’ ustremlenie”: Stat’i i issledovaniia o F.M. Dostoevskom [“All Aspiration”: Articles and Research about Fyodor Dostoevsky], ed. by O.A. Bogdanova, Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2018. 927 p. (In Russ.)

8. Saraskina, L.I. “Radikal’naia utopiia o vseobshchem voskreshenii i real’nost’ zla. Uchenie N.F. Fedorova v kontekste ubiistva F.P. Karamazova” [“A Radical Utopia about Universal Resurrection and the Reality of Evil. Nikolay Fedorov’s Teaching in the Context of the Murder of Fedor Pavlovich Karamazov”]. Dostoevskii v sozvuchiiakh i pritiazheniiakh (ot Pushkina do Solzhenitsyna) [Dostoevsky in Consonances and Attractions (From Pushkin to Solzhenitsyn)], Moscow, Russkii put’ Publ., 2006, pp. 320–341. (In Russ.)

9. Semenova, S.G. Russkaia literatura XIX–XX vv.: Ot poetiki k miroponimaniiu [19th- and 20th-Century Russian Literature. From Poetics to an Understanding of the World]. Moscow, Akademicheskii proekt Publ., 2016. 890 p. (In Russ.)

10. Semenova, S.G. Filosof budushchego Nikolai Fedorov [Nikolay Fedorov, Philosopher of the Future]. Moscow, Akademicheskii proekt Publ., 2019. 638 p. (In Russ.)

11. Solov’ev, V.S. Sobranie sochinenii: v 10 tomakh [Collected Works: in 10 vols], vol. 1. St. Petersburg, Prosveshchenie Publ., 1911. 389 p. (In Russ.)

12. Toporov, V.N. “O ‘rezonantnom’ prostranstve literatury (neskol’ko zamechanii)” [“About the ‘Resonant’ Space of Literature (A Few Remarks)”]. Literary Tradition and Practice in Russian Culture. Papers from an International Conference on the Occasion of the Seventieth Birthday of Yury Mikhailovich Lotman, Rodopi Publ., 1993, pp. 16–21. (In Russ.)

13. Fedorov, N.F. Sobranie sochinenii: v 4 tomakh [Collected Works: in 4 vols]. Moscow, Progress-Traditsiia, 1995–2000. (In Russ.)