Проблемы исторической поэтики (Nov 2012)
HYMNOGRAPHIC 'CANON' AS A “FORM OF THE PLAN” IN “THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV” BY DOSTOEVSKY
Abstract
The article draws a parallel between divine service and art, using Dostoevsky's last grand masterpiece as an example. We begin by defining the canon as a genre and as a liturgical order. The order of songs in the canon and the liturgical order resemble the sequence of Dostoevsky's novel and make it ordered and recognizable. The form chosen by the author was more organic for Russian consequence than the novel in its Western version and more expressive for a piece of art. By shaping his novel into a canon as a hymnographic piece, Dostoevsky created a special form which helped his novel attain perfection. The form of canon as a hymnographic text is found in the novel's structure (“a form of a plan”) which is made clear by the positioning of the life of Zosima. The novel's hidden meaning was thus expressed in its form. The structure of a canon reproduced in a piece of fiction allowed Dostoevsky to link the contemporary and the all-embracing, bring up eternally important issues of losing faith in God and provide true answers in the discovery of new faith in Jesus.
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