Textual Analysis and new Facts for а History of the Text (on the Material of F.M. Dostoevsky’s Manuscripts)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the principles of textual research of F.M. Dostoevsky’s manuscripts on the material of the writer’s artistic ideas of the 1860s – 1870s (The Idiot, “The Eternal Husband”, The Adolescent, The Demons). The paper substantiates the idea of the connection between the study of the language and graphic characteristics of the source and the finding of new facts about the history of texts and the creative history of the writer’s works. An analysis of the manuscripts allows correcting errors in publications of handwritten text. This analysis clarifies the content of the text, such as the circumstances of its creation, unknown biographical parallels, prototypes of characters, and the history of the author’s artistic ideas. In addition, textual research allows us to collect information about the creative process, to determine some specific features in the author’s work.

Keywords

• fyodor dostoevsky
• textual criticism
• the idiot
• “the eternal husband”
• the adolescent
• the demons
• autobiography