The Meaning of Art and the Way of Theological Discourse in Dostoevsky: "The Peasant Marey": Contextual Analysis and Close Reading

Abstract

Among F.M. Dostoevsky’s texts “The Peasant Marey” is a unique one, in whose four pages the author clearly shows the reader the way he structures his images (reproducing the structure of everything in the world as it appears in the deep sight of the artist), his method of creating, the way of his theological discourse. The method of close and contextual reading allows us to analyze and describe these structure of imagery, method of creation and way of theological discourse, as well as to see the meaning and the purpose of the occurrence of literary texts in the composition of “A Writer’s Diary”, and to analyze the deep meaning of this short story, that describes the changing of the author’s view – the moment in which appear “the artist’s eyes”, thanks to a “recollection from childhood” very important for Dostoevsky. Moreover, in this short story Dostoevsky explains the meaning of art in general, and the intent of his own art as something able to communicate people “recollections” they “could not have”, i.e. to provide people with “recollections” they “could not have”, i.e. to provide with experience, in lack of experience. In addition, the article shows the transition from the use of Evangelical imagery inside the characters in order to show the reader the meaning of the scene, to the use of situations and relations in the storyline in order to show the meanings of the text they refer to (in this case, the Gospel), i.e. to show the writer’s theology.

Keywords

• dostoevsky
• the peasant marey
• the structure of images
• theory of creating
• writer’s theology
• meaning and function of art