F.M. Dostoevsky and M. Proust in the History of Literature in France

Abstract

The article investigates the perception of Dostoevsky’s work through its comparison with Proust’s artistic heritage. It considers the problem of Proust and Dostoevsky in France both from the standpoint of famous writers’ interpretation and of literary criticism. Works by such writers as A. Gide, S. Beckett, N. Sarraute are here analyzed. The author pays special attention to critical studies dedicated to the topic, revealing the presence of an “author’s style” and the need to consider their specificity. It is noted that the comparison of Dostoevsky’s and Proust’s works is provoked by the French author himself. From this point of view, the article analyzes in details Proust’s perception of Dostoevsky’s literary heritage, which is largely responsible for the specificity of comparative works devoted to these authors. These kind of works follows two main directions. On one hand, authors use comparative analysis in order to confirm their own ideas, fitting them into the framework of a personal aesthetic conception. On the other hand, they develop Proust’s judgments about Dostoevsky’s works, and attempt to apply them to Proust through typological processing, more or less subjective. Subjectivity in judgments can be explained by different factors: the intentions of the author, his outlook, the scope of his research, and his degree of familiarity with the works of the two writers. The article shows that in this specific case comparative operations are very complicated, as it is necessary to take into account a multilayered system, consisting of the different creative and ideological positions of Dostoevsky, Proust, and the author comparing them.

Keywords

• comparative studies
• french literature studies
• typological convergence
• dostoevsky’s “new beauty”
• artistic system of proust