From a Rhetoric of tapeinosis and humilitas through the Tradition of Holy Fools to Dostoevsky’s Christopoetics (The Idiot)

Abstract

The Christological hymn included in Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (2,5-11) applies two different Greek verbs in connection to the concept of Christ’s self-humiliation: kenosis and tapeinosis. This article traces the interconnections between the ethical norm of positive self-humiliation (kenosis) and the rhetorical practice of abasement (tapeinosis). The latter used to be considered as something undesirable throughout most of the history of rhetoric, while it was rendered functional by the imitators of Christ. This fact gave rise to a thread ranging from Greek fathers (John Chrysostom, Theodoret of Cyrrhus) to Johann Georg Hamann and Karlfried Gründer, who argue for a positive understanding of rhetorical humility as well. Drawing on this conceptual tradition, the author zooms in on the poor appearance and humble speech of Russian holy fools which inspired the communicative behavior of the Christlike character of Count Myshkin as imagined in Fedor M. Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot (1867-1869). In contrast to merely negative interpretations of Myshkin’s defeat in the plot of the novel, for example by Walter Benjamin, the author demonstrates that it is exactly his communicative deficits and clumsiness which render Myshkin a convincing imitator of Christ—through his ethical humility and oral defensiveness, which make Myshkin’s failure comparable to Christ’s passion and crucifixion.

Keywords

• dostoevsky
• the idiot
• myshkin
• christ
• john chrysostom
• holy fools
• rhetoric
• practice
• self-humiliation
• tapeinosis.