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Lipich V. V., Lipich T. I. The romantic paradigm of realist Dostoyevsky // Сетевой журнал «Научный результат». Серия «Социальные и гуманитарные исследования». -
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UDC 821.161.1
DOI: 10.18413/2408-932X-2015-1-4-33-36
Lipich V. V. Lipich T. I.
THE ROMANTIC PARADIGM OF REALIST DOSTOYEVSKY
1) Doctor of Philology, Professor. Belgorod National Research University. 85, Pobedy St., Belgorod, 308015, Russia
E-mail: [email protected]
2) Doctor of Philosophy, Professor. Belgorod National Research University 85, Pobedy St., Belgorod, 308015, Russia. E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract
The article is devoted to the inheritance of the traditions of romanticism in the creative activity of young F. M. Dostoyevsky. The article dwells upon the certain points of integration and the typological interrelation of the artistic views of F. M. Dostoyevsky - a writer-realist - with the esthetic system and poetics of romanticism.
Keywords: romanticism; realism; psychological insight; poetics; method; succession; tradition. Липич В. В. РОМАНТИЧЕСКАЯ ПАРАДИГМА
Липич Т. И._____________ Ф.М. ДОСТОЕВСКОГО-РЕАЛИСТА________________________________
F.M. Dostoevsky began his artistic career, when the principles of realism in Russian literature were almost confirmed. This fact conditioned the originality of the romantic spheres in the system of images by its predominantly realistic works. However, the mastering of realistic image principles by young Dostoevsky does not belittle his deep interest in romantic artistic world. In 1840-ies a young writer refers to the methods of romanticism poetry and widely introduces romantic life content in his works. Some of them use the individual elements of a romantic image reflection, which indicate that F.M. Dostoevsky at the beginning of his creative career used some of the ideological and artistic discoveries of romanticism writing realistic works.
Researchers repeatedly noted the manifestation of romantic imagery traditions and stylistic manner in the works of early Dostoevsky. At one time V. Belinsky saw the writer's attempt «to reconcile Marlinsky with Hoffmann» [1, p. 467] in the story «The Mistress».
A number of works written by domestic authors at different times, also states that the early works of Dostoevsky have the images and artistic situations that are associated with the images and situations of romantic works known by the writer. However, these correct observations were produced by the authors of works as if by chance, in connection with the consideration and the analysis of other problems. So there was no goal to highlight the problem of romanticism in early Dostoevsky's works, although the repeated mention about it indicates its absolute relevance.
Various aspects of F.M. Dostoevsky's creativity, including the romantic tradition issues, are also in the focus of constant research attention of many Western researchers. The works of such scholars as Romain
Nazirov, Tatiana Zyryanova, Olga Meyerson, Harriet Murav, Robin Miller, Deborah Martiensen, Lisa Napp, Irina Reyfman, Robert Belknap, Dennis Patrick Slattery, Richard Peace, Malkam Jones, Diane Thompson et al. have quite original and specific meaningful observations and interpretations of shrill and urgent problem various complex, by which an inexhaustible creative heritage of the Russian writer is filled in1.
The influence of romanticism on
1 See: Nazirov, R.G. Dostoevsky and romanticism // About mythology and literature, or the overcoming of death. Articles and studies over the years. Ufa, 2010. Pp. 251-263; Zyryanova, T.V. Romanticism of beauty. F.M. Dostoevsky: "Crime and Punishment" M., 2011; Meerson, О. Dostoevky's Taboos. Dresden-Munchen: DresdenUniv. Press, 1998; Murav, Н. Holy Foolishness: Dostoevsky's Novel and the Poetics of Cultural Critique. Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1992; Miller, R.F. The Brothers Karamazov: Worlds of the Novel. N.Y.: Twayne, 1992; Martinsen, D. Surprised by Shame: Dostoevsky's Liars and Narrative Exposure. Columbus: Ohio State Univ. Press, 2003; Knapp, L. The Annihilation of Inertia: Dostoevsky and Metaphysics. Evanston, III: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1996; Reyfman, I. Ritualized Violence Russian Style: The Duel in Russian Literature and Culture. Stanford (Calif.): Stanford Univ. Press, 1999; Belknap, R. The Genesis of The Brothers Karamazov. N.Y.: Columbia Univ. Press, 1990; Slattery, D.P. The Wounded Body: Remembering the Markings of the Flesh. Albany, N.Y.: State Univ. of N.Y. Press, 2000; Peace, R. Dostoyevsky: An Examination of the Major Novels. Cambridge, 1971; Jones, M. Dostoevsky after Bakhtin: Reading in Dostoevsky's Fantastic Realism. Cambridge; N.Y.; Port Chester, Melbourne; Sydney: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990; Thompson, D. The Brothers Karamazov and the Poetics of Memory. Cambridge:
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F.M. Dostoevsky was reflected not only in the literal adherence to the works or the methods of romantic poetics but in the aesthetic impact on the writer's mind and feelings, which determined the originality of reality creative perception. This impact was not short one and fast, and, of course, it did not pass in vain. Dostoevsky came to realistic art, passing through romantic aesthetics school, which left a considerable mark in his works.
The presence of romantic tendencies in the young Dostoevsky's works is usually explained by researchers as a logical influence of ideological and aesthetic heritage of a number of romantic people, which influenced most severely during the period of apprenticeship and the search of the writer's way in literature. And this mainly true explanation is quite fair, in particular, to such story as «The Mistress», where a traditional romantic imagery prevails. In other works («White Nights», «Netochka Nezvanova», «Little Hero»), the romantic beginning is closely associated with an original outlook of a young writer, and such basic literature settings of 1840-ies, as the desire for an accurate depiction of the lower social strata life and the deepening of psychology in the works of «natural school» writers.
The creative interests of early Dostoevsky, the particular artistic development of reality, constituting his essence and originality as an artist, reveal various points of contact with romanticism. We will mention only two of them. The first one is related more to the subject of an imaginative reflection, the second one -to the principles of certain areas of life disclosure.
For F.M. Dostoevsky, as well as for romantics, an exceptional interest is presented by the sphere of human life, which is the sphere of romanticism, i.e. the «inner intimate life of a man, that mysterious soil of soul and heart, from which all vague aspirations rise for something better and sublime, trying to find the satisfaction in ideals, created by fantasy» [2, pp. 145-146].
By drawing closer to the romantics concerning the subject of artistic representation, F.M. Dostoevsky had certain differences with them. The fact is that for the romantics, in particular, for V.A. Zhukovsky as the founder of Russian Romanticism, it was the only reality worthy of poetic expression («the mysterious soil of soul and heart»), but for Dostoevsky it becomes the part (an important, but still a part) of the imaging world. That romantic sphere which was perceived by romantics without the connection with an objective reality, was taken by Dostoevsky in the interaction with the outside world, explains to them, admitting the possibility of considerable independence possibility concerning
emotional processes.
Romantic aspect was differently manifested in the outlook of «little people» whose images are presented in a complex way by Dostoevsky's creation. Aiming for a truthful deep reflection of petty official life, the writer showed not only their poverty, but also various manifestations of their romantic world-view. The creations of the dream escaping from real life, the various manifestations of escape from social environment in the narrow little world of subjective experiences, a romantic selfisolation, the opposition of yourself to an objective reality (including painful and ugly forms) had a fairly broad implementation in Dostoevsky's works.
Dostoevsky was aware and felt that for a person who was under a constant pressure of life circumstances, the creation of some kind of other sphere becomes a specific need, if not real, but created by a fantasy, its own, in which his soul would open better.
The romantic escape in the sphere of subjective experiences, self-isolation of a person as the form of his approval and the protection from the social environment become more frequent phenomena due to the development of new social relations, which cause great social and moral controversies, particularly affecting the fates of poor people.
Instead of a romantic world, which was mainly an expression of the author's soul (which is typical of the Romantic era), the romantic world of a «little man» is introduced into literature. At that it should be noted that Dostoevsky's characters have mainly two characteristic traits for a romantic attitude of the trend: the escape from the environment in the sphere of dreams, happy memories of the past (Varenka Dobroselova, the narrator in «White Nights» and in «The Little Hero», Netochka Nezvanova etc.) and self-isolation, self-exaltation, the opposition to the oppressive circumstances of life (Efimov, partly Mr. Golyadkin).
Dostoevsky, focusing his attention on the inner world of a «little man», discovered such manifestations of a romantic attitude, which were not totally expressed in Russian literature. Romantic heroes of M.Y. Lermontov, partly the heroes of
A.S. Pushkin, of the Decembrists, of V.G. Belinsky's youth drama (as well as the main heroes of the West romantics) were characterized by an exceptional power of passions, impulses, aspirations; their protest, pessimism sometimes acquired a cosmic scale, and sorrow became a «global» one. Some other world of romantic experiences started to disclose in connection with the introduction into literature of «little man» topic and image. Dreams, aspirations of
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poor people get a mild, pink-sentimental tone; an undefined spiritual protest becomes a timid one and sometimes expressed in fear, hidden in the inner monologues of despair; grief becomes a narrowly individualistic one - it is about personal insults and failures, resulting in the decrease of romantic life content.
If the heroes of romanticism literature are portrayed mostly in a romantic state at the moment of a protest expression against the earthly and heavenly orders (Demon) at the moment of an impulse to some free life on a native land (Mtsyri), during the escape from the civilized environment (Prisoner, Aleko) and they are in an exceptional circumstances, then the state of romantic dreams, self-isolation and the contrasting of yourself to an objective world, or the escape in their narrow little world for Dostoyevsky's characters is only a temporary phenomenon of their life.
The romantic state of F.M. Dostoevsky's heroes is portrayed in a natural life process as the part of a man inner world and his relationship to an objective reality.
Thus, a romantic appearance gets closer to a real and everyday one, but in its essence they become incompatible and sharply contrasted. Even when this subjective world is not separated from the environment, the characters are trying to conceal it from an alien view, to protect against the interference of people who are ready to destroy it. Makar Devushkin is constantly preoccupied with the idea that «people say something? <...> What if they find out the truth about us?» [3, pp. 22, 26]. And his dream about the triumph of justice is transferred to a service, home plan.
Artistic situations change, where the romantic disposition of Dostoevsky's heroes is revealed. Instead of escaping from an evil social environment and «stuffy cities» in exotic countries, to a place far from civilization, or the escaping in the heroic past, in a fantasy world, in the sphere of philosophical problems (as was typical for the Romantic era heroes) the defenseless, concerned about tomorrow day Dostoevsky's characters have the desire to hide from the threatening reality in squalid rooms and corners, leave into the sphere of dreary expectations, dreams, an unrequited, sublime, and sometimes even pointless love.
Such heroes of romantic works as The Prisoner, Aleko, and Demon are not shown at the decisive moment of collision with a hostile reality. They appear after the main conflict that gave rise to the desire among the Prisoner and Aleko to escape from the civilized world, and Demon wanted to sow evil
and thus express the rebellion against earthly and heavenly orders.
Dostoevsky's characters are shown in the process of direct clash with the environment, which is presented as the embodiment of an uncertain hostile force, pushes them to self-isolation, and makes to escape into the world of dreams and illusions. For example, when Mr. Golyadkin was expelled from the ball the entire world is presented as a kind of some hostile element that came down on him. There is only he, humiliated and ridiculed, and an objective world - chaos. In this chaos the human killing laughter, and shouts, and the hands which grabbed him and cast him out, and the terrible night of St. Petersburg, «wet, foggy, rainy, snowy» [4, p. 355].
Thus, we see that the romantic world is an integral part of F.M. Dostoevsky's works content in 1840-ies. But Dostoevsky's romantic aspect has basically a realistic figurative embodiment and explanation. Only occasionally during the explanation and the picturing an extra, romantic plan appears, depending on the attitude of the characters.
The romantic sphere as the part of a subject image plays an important role in the ideological and artistic system of Dostoevsky's early works. The presence of this sphere in the characters' lives determines to a great extent the sharpness and intensity of their emotional experiences and psychological conflicts. The romantic sphere is an active factor in the development of young Dostoevsky's work plot, which often interacts with the factors of objective reality and the romantic world. So, for example, the main impulses that define the relationship of «White Nights» heroes come from this area of their life, or are conditioned by it.
Romanticism revealed a characteristic feature of object human perception, the phenomena of objective reality, when the movements of a perceiving subject spiritual life are transferred on them. Taking into account this feature of human perception,
romanticists approved the principle of uncertain state of mind disclosure in the artistic practice through the reflection of objects, the phenomena of a «humanized» environment. This romantic principle of human mental life artistic expression, approved in Russian poetry by V. Zhukovsky, began to play an important role in Dostoevsky's works as a writer-psychologist, who provides an exclusive attention to the deep areas of different people inner world.
Referring to the aforementioned principle, F.M. Dostoevsky significantly expanded the scope and the purpose of its use. V.A. Zhukovsky expresses elegiac meditations and related emotional disturbances, different shades of mood by the
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pictures of «humanized» nature, the specific «soul landscapes». F.M. Dostoevsky discloses different spheres of an internal character world by the introduction of «animate», recreated various environment elements in the perception of a subject, the environment in which the characters find themselves during the moments of an intense mental activity.
Thus, the presence among the romantics and Dostoevsky the general (romantic) sphere in the image subject conditioned some of their common nature in the principles of imaginative reflection and a stylistic manner. It is also noteworthy that the features of the romantic style act not only in the story «The Mistress», where, according to the reasonable approval of researchers, the author clearly follows the traditions of romantic literature, but also in «White Nights», in «Netochka Nezvanova», in «Little hero» -in the works in where romantic trends affect an original Dostoevsky's outlook. All this gives the grounds to say that Dostoevsky's early artistic manner presents not so much the process liberation
from the chains of romanticism, but the desire of the creative use concerning his discoveries and achievements. The confirmation and the embodiment of this aspiration may be found in the realistic creation of F.M. Dostoevsky's mature period.
References
1. Belinsky V. G. The letter to P. V. Annenkov issued on February 15, 1848. Complete Collection of Works: in 13 vols. Vol. XII. Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1956. Pp. 465-469.
2. Belinsky, V. G. The Collection of Alexander Pushkin Works. Article two. Complete Collection of Works: in 13 vols. Vol. VII. Moscow: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1955. Pp. 132-223.
3. Dostoevsky, F. M. Poor People [Bednye lyudi]. Complete Collection of Works: in 30 vols. Vol. I. Leningrad: Science, 1972. Pp. 13-108.
4. Dostoevsky, F. M. Double. The Adventures of Mr. Golyadkin. <Journal edition 1846>. Complete Collection of Works: in 30 vols. Vol. I. Leningrad: Nauka, 1972. Pp. 334-431.
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