F. M. Dostoevsky’s short story “Bobok” in the metatext of literature

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of the short story “Bobok” included in the “Writer’s Diary”for 1873. The study aims to identify the ideological and thematic specificity of the story “Bobok”, which is part of the “Diary of a writer” for 1873, its role in the work of the writer and the disclosure of the author’s concept of man. In modern Dostoevsky studies, the problem of identifying and studying the integrity of the complex artistic world of the writer’s works is recognized as one of the main epistemological problems. The analysis and interpretation of the literary text and idiostyle of the author is based on the study of metaphysical space and conceptual structure of the work of art. Anthropocentrism presupposes new approaches both to the whole system of artistic communication and to the interpretation of individual literary texts; and this in its turn requires interdisciplinary research procedures and techniques based on a new conceptual framework. The article uses the concept of idioglossus, which isa component of an individual author’s picture of the world and contains the specifics of the author’s style. The verbalization of idioglosses in the text of Dostoevsky’s works reflects the individual author’s perception of the world, mediated not only by national but also by European culture.The analysis and interpretation of the literary text and idiostyle of the author is based on the study of metaphysical space and conceptual structure of the work of art. The article shows that the idioglossa “soul” in the story “Bobok” organizes the figurative fabric of the literary text and objectifies the author’s intentions, allowing partly to reconstruct the inner world of F. M. Dostoevsky and pointing to a certain understanding of Plato’s ideas by him. The story in genre and ideological-thematic content is included in the European literary and philosophical traditions and is an integral part of the metatext of Russian

Keywords

• menippea
• idioglossia
• author’s style
• narrative
• intertextuality
• literary text
• author’s intentions