Revolutionary discourse as the subject of the image in the «Demons» by Dostoevsky

Abstract

The subject of the research in the article is the Russian revolutionary political discourse as an object of artistic reflection. The analysis was carried out on the material of the «most political» novel by F.M. Dostoevsky «Demons». The main method of research is semiotic analysis, which revealed the totality of the basic values and challenges of the revolution in Dostoevsky's interpretation: the categories of revolutionary political power (a new person and his main attribute – self-will, a new society, «friends» and «enemies» of the revolution), the strategies of the revolutionarist's speech behavior and revolutionary genres. The various image focuses used by Dostoevsky – from the grotesque to the tragic – allow highlighting many acute problems of Russian history, from which it is easy to draw a parallel to the problems of modernity.

Keywords

• literary text
• dostoevsky
• novel «demons»
• political discourse
• revolution
• semiotic analysis
• concept
• speech strategy
• revolutionary propaganda
• speech genre
• scandal