POETICS OF CULTURAL MEMORY AND SUBJECT-MATERIAL ONTHOLOGY IN THE NOVEL BY F.M. DOSTOEVSKY “THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV”
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2020-5-142-154
Introduction. The basis of cultural memory are the processes of “rebirth” and “oblivion”, the ratio of which affects the spiritual make-up of each era. However, the action of the mechanism of “cultural memory” acquires special significance in times of social cataclysms. In the artistic thinking of the crisis time, the semantic complex of “cultural memory” primarily implements the function of “ordering the elemental world”, “modeling” its aesthetically relevant “copy” according to the universal principle of the creation myth and its structure. The understanding of the spiritual reality of the crisis time is carried out in synthesized forms that arise as a result of intrageneric and intergenre transformations. This kind of artistic phenomena includes the final novel by F. M. Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”, which reflects the author’s desire to create a universal artistic super-form for a comprehensive embodiment of the worldview. Aim and objectives. To study the subject-material world in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” from ontological positions and in the context of the poetics of cultural memory. In this regard to identify characteristic features of descriptive parts of the plot, to reveal key spatial images, to differentiate the “subject” and “material” meanings of interior objects. Material and methods. The article explores the features of image of the objective world in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, relying on the works by M. M. Bakhtin, S. S. Averintsev, A. P. Chudakov, M. N. Epstein, K. G. Isupov. The subject of study is the interior as one of the aspects of the subject-material world and a number of things-operators in their connection with the problems of cultural memory. The study is carried out on the basis of the structuralsemiotic method. Results and discussion. In Russian literary criticism, the problem of object / subject poetics has not been systematically studied. The tokens “subject” and “thing” are most often used in a generalized sense. The differences in their etymons are given, the composite term “subject-material world” is proposed, which combines different (visual and auditory) versions of the artistic interpretation of reality while preserving the original values, and also includes an approach to the subject and things from the standpoint of spiritual development, the discovery of existential meaning. The subject-material aspect in the poetics of F. M. Dostoevsky is represented in an undeveloped manner. However, in the context of the aspiration of thought F. M. Dostoevsky on the “subject-matter”, “substantial” subject-material world acquires special characteristics. The “stereotyped” descriptions of interiors in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, as a technique, creates multiple plot calls and repetitions, which together reveal a metaphysical image of the common space. Interior items, depicted extremely conditionally, at the same time realize the symbolic function of the “things” of messengers. The brevity of descriptions, which in the limit boils down to enumeration, actualizes the early, donarrative forms of the cumulative type in the plot, giving dynamics and eventfulness to the descriptive parts of the plot. In addition, the symbolism of objects of the subject-real world includes the possibility of transforming an object into a thing, which is understood as revealing the eidos, living structure or metaphysical depth of a thing and the inverse movement of a thing into an object, “closing” its existential core, “solidifying” within the external forms of material existence. Conclusion. Thus, the subject-material world in “The Brothers Karamazov”, in particular the interior, given in brief descriptions, listings, references, not only dotted outlines the contours of everyday life of heroes, determines the trajectories of their movements, actions, but also implements the possibility of “entering” into existential meanings, into the space of sacred memory, becoming, by the definition of P. Florensky, a symbol of Eternity created in Time.
Keywords: cultural memory, object, thing, interior, iteration, metaphysics, eidos, descriptive fragments, Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”
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Issue: 5, 2020
Series of issue: Issue 5
Rubric: TOPICAL ISSUES OF LITERARY CRITICISM
Pages: 142 — 154
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