“Pseudo-precedent” Signs of High Culture from the Citation Source “F.M. Dostoevsky” in the Modern Media Text

Kuzmina Luiza ORCID: 0000-0001-8013-6984 Postgraduate student, Department of General and Russian Linguistics, People's University of Friendship of Russia 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya str., 10 luiza-rudn@yandex.ru

IntroductionIt is known that the modern media space is characterized by total intertextuality, which is represented by two types of quotations:

1) references to expert opinions, quotations that increase the reliability of the text, and 2) quotations with linguistic and cultural value that enhance the expressiveness, emotionality and axiological nature of the media text – precedent phenomena, textual reminiscences, allusions, etc.

Russian Russian culture is traditionally considered to be literaturocentric, references to recognizable phenomena of the sphere of "Russian classical literature" are frequent in the media space. We call such precedent units "signs of high culture" ^[20].

In recent years, there have been works in which the whole variety of manifestations of precedent in popular culture is defined by the term "precedent world", which means a set of precedent phenomena functioning in the media space, united by one source and being in a systemic relationship ^{[9, 10, 23]}. The source can be the sphere of art, a separate work of art, a historical event, as well as an outstanding personality "creating a whole world of precedent names, statements, texts and situations around him" ^{[18, p. 42]} and "fixed in the mind of a native speaker in the form of images, knowledge, assessments" ^[25].  In this study, the precedent world of F.M. Dostoevsky is considered as a source sphere.

Research resultsThe structure of the precedent world includes the reception of F.M. Dostoevsky in various types of art – cinema, theater, painting, music, in which the appeal to the name of Dostoevsky is extremely frequent.

However, the basis of the writer's precedent world is made up of precedent names, statements, situations appealing to his biography and work, which are part of mass culture and widely distributed in various types of media, in which, due to contextual conditioning, they acquire a new meaning. These are well-known phrases from the works ("I'm a trembling creature or I have the right", "a child's tear", "humiliated and insulted", etc.), the names of characters, etc. For example: "The humiliated and insulted of the new century: the TV series "House Arrest" begins to be shown on TV" ^[37];"Who are we today: trembling creatures or insatiable beasts?"^[32]; "About amendments, as well as the generalized new Smerdyakov with his flock as a product of our media" ^[44]; "Actually. Crime without punishment: modern Raskolnikov is caught in a lie" ^[46].

Modern digital society is characterized by a state of post–truth, in which "the subjective – emotions, assessments, reactions, personal beliefs – looks more significant than the objective - facts and phenomena" ^{[16, p.79]}. In this regard, along with precedent phenomena in the media space, pseudocitates attributed to F.M. Dostoevsky are also highly active, which is typical for the bearers of a precedent name ^{[1, p. 48]}. To denote this type of reference to non-existent objects of citation, researchers have proposed the term "pseudo-intertextuality" ^{[19, p. 80; 24, p.197]}. Many of F.M. Dostoevsky's "pseudo-citations" are used in the texts of modern media not once, but, on the contrary, are actively replicated, turn into some "templates", firmly associated with the name of the writer. We will designate such "false quotations" by the term "pseudo-popular cultural signs". 

T.G. Dobrosklonskaya noted that depending on who creates media texts and on which platforms they are distributed, they can be divided into three types: 1) media texts created by professional journalists, 2) media texts created and distributed by bloggers, 3) media texts created and distributed by any individual user within the category of "personal content" ^{[2, pp. 41-42]}. "Pseudo-literary" signs are found in all three listed groups of media texts; from the point of view of genre forms, they are most actively used in social network posts, demotivators, Internet comments that are "trapped in subjectivity", as well as in analytical materials that "go beyond an impartial description" ^{[12, p.78]}.

According to the degree of unreliability of information, "pseudo-false" signs with the source "F.M. Dostoevsky" can be conditionally divided into several groups:

1) quotes that do not belong to Dostoevsky;

2) quotes taken out of the context of Dostoevsky's works;

3) rumors and gossip concerning the facts of Dostoevsky's personal life.

Let's look at these groups with concrete examples.

1. Quotes that do not belong to Dostoevsky.The scale of "hoaxes" in new media is becoming more and more widespread.

Dostoevsky is credited with statements, on the one hand, "quite probable from the point of view of the image that has developed in the public sphere, and on the other – almost absurd" ^{[8, p. 118]}.

An example of such a statement can be the phrase replicated on the Internet at the end of 2021: "Tolerance will reach such a level that smart people will be forbidden to think, so as not to offend idiots"^[40].

Russian Russian and although the phrase can be correlated with the philosophical views of the writer, the statement that this statement belongs to Dostoevsky's pen looks absurd: according to the data of the National Corpus of the Russian Language, the lexeme tolerance was first recorded in 1869 in the work of N.S. Leskov "Russian Public Notes" ^[26]; another occurrence was recorded a year later, in 1870, in his novel "On Knives" ^[27]. Other cases of the use of the desired unit are found only after 1895 ^[28], whereas Dostoevsky died in 1881, and the corpus of literature of the XIX century fully contains fiction, journalism and private correspondence of Dostoevsky. In the creative heritage of the writer, the desired phrase could not be found.

However, in social networks, publications containing this quote have gained huge popularity. At the same time, the authors of publications often, using the technique of lexical substitution, replace the components of the utterance with synonymous ones. For example, instead of the smart lexeme, the intelligent lexeme is used, instead of an idiot – an imbecile, etc., which can serve as an indirect sign of the speaker's uncertainty about the authorship of the "quote": "Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be forbidden to do any thinking so as not to offend the imbeciles" ^[39].

Attention is also drawn to the fact that the author of the phrase is mistakenly indicated by Professor Preobrazhensky from the story of M.A. Bulgakov "The Heart of a Dog". On social networks, you can find numerous posts and demotivators with footage from the film, which depicts Yevgeny Evstigneev as Professor Preobrazhensky. For example: "It seems that tolerance will soon reach the point where the smart will be forbidden to think, because it offends the feelings of the stupid." Prof. Preobrazhensky" ^[38].

Similarly, see the phrase invariably signed with the name of F.M. Dostoevsky: "Each of us is devoted. To someone or by someone." However, there are no sufficient grounds for attributing it to Dostoevsky: the phrase is not found in any of the printed and handwritten texts that make up the writer's artistic, journalistic and epistolary heritage, published in the Complete Works.

Pseudocitates are found not only in social media, but also in professional, as well as in the speech of famous personalities, political figures. Thus, the speaker of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Alexander Belsky, answering a journalist's question about Dostoevsky's favorite work, said the following: "As for his works, in fact, we face this on a daily basis. There are his catch phrases, for example, "Wake me up in 100 years, and I will tell you what is happening in Russia"" ^[47]. Probably, the phrase was meant "If I fall asleep and wake up in a hundred years and they ask me what is happening in Russia now, I will answer: they drink and steal," which is also attributed to M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, then N.M. Karamzin. However, the phrase appears in M.M. Zoshchenko's "Blue Book" with reference to P.A. Vyazemsky's notebooks.

Russian Russian without Orthodoxy is trash, not a person" is extremely common in the media (in another version – "Russian without God is trash, not a person"). Despite the fact that the author of the statement is A.I. Koshelev ("Without Orthodoxy, our nationality is rubbish. With Orthodoxy, our nationality has world significance"), in media texts, including demotivators, Dostoevsky's name invariably stands under this phrase. At the same time, the "pseudo-quotation" is often supported by the words "as Dostoevsky said", designed to increase the objectivity, reliability, verifiability of the text. For example: "Dostoevsky also said: "A Russian man without faith is trash."And what we see today is that Muslims have many children, the Chinese are hardworking, and Russians are dying out" (from the conversation of hieroschemonk Valentin Gurevich) ^[48]. See also: "F.M. Dostoevsky <...> in his works repeatedly and in different variations repeated: “A Russian without Orthodoxy is trash, not a person...”. And he had reason to do so" ^[34].

2. Quotations taken out of the context of Dostoevsky's works.The name of F.M. Dostoevsky is often used for political and ideological purposes.

The speaker may intentionally use phrases of the characters of the works "pulled out" from the context or fragments set out not entirely, but selectively, in order to express his own opinion. Using such a technique, the speaker "disguises his position under the quote of a famous person in order to convince the interlocutor of the significance of the judgment expressed by him" ^{[17, p.155]}. Researchers note that such "fake" quotes are the most difficult to deal with ^{[12, p. 80]}.

Thus, the author of the phrase "Russian means Orthodox" in its various variations in collections of quotations from famous people, in discussions on Orthodox forums, is invariably considered F.M. Dostoevsky. In the comments, discussions unfold on whether Dostoevsky is right or not: "Again, Dostoevsky said this a long time ago, other times are another reality"; "And Dostoevsky is right, without Orthodoxy is nowhere for us!"; "Come on, it's F. M. Dostoevsky – he was a player himself and wrote all sorts of gloom....)))))))" ^[36]. However, this phrase in the form of a direct quote is not in Dostoevsky's texts; it is a reinterpreted thesis from the dialogue of the characters in the novel "Demons". Here is the original text:

"Shatov interrupted, waving his hand:

-       Russian Russian, do you remember your expression: "An atheist cannot be Russian, an atheist immediately ceases to be Russian", do you remember that?- Yes?

Nikolai Vsevolodovich asked, as if he were asking again.-      

Are you asking? Have you forgotten? And yet this is one of the most accurate indications of one of the main features of the Russian spirit, which you guessed. Couldn't you forget that? I will remind you more – you said at the same time: "A non–Orthodox cannot be Russian" ^{[3, pp.155-156]}.

Russian Russian phrases "Non-Orthodox cannot be Russian", "Atheist cannot be Russian" are uttered by Ivan Shatov, retelling the words of Nikolai Stavrogin. It is also said about him that he "replaced God with an attribute of the common people," he was "crushed by the idea of nationalism." The well-known researcher of F.M. Dostoevsky's creativity L.I. Saraskina notes: Russian Russian atheists, Russian non-Orthodox, and non-Russian Orthodox were known to Dostoevsky. Therefore, in the mouth of Dostoevsky, the desired phrase actually looks monstrous. This is speculation and even provocation, and this is absolutely dishonest journalistic behavior" ^[29].

The distortion of factual information, in particular quotations, in the media may be due to the ideology of a particular publication or the ideological attitudes of the journalist himself – "adherence to a particular political, economic, cultural idea" ^{[22, p. 125]}. Such "pseudo-popular" phrases are often used as "an instrument of political struggle and (or) the translation of certain political views" ^{[15, p. 78]}.

Russian Russian culture and mentality, as well as the Russian people as a whole, are criticized by many authors who adhere to liberal views in their publications. And to prove their opinion, they cite quotations from classics of Russian literature (often not belonging to them, which are "fakes"). Among such "quotes" the phrase attributed to Dostoevsky regularly appears: "The people who wander around Europe and look for what can be destroyed, destroyed just for the sake of entertainment."Articles with the headline "Dostoevsky on Russians: "A people who are looking for what can be destroyed for entertainment" appear in the media.

The authors put a quote in the title, which is presented as a real statement of Dostoevsky. Readers are invited to "find out what the Russian writer Dostoevsky said about Russians." At the same time, the authors use only "convenient" fragments from the "Writer's Diary" to discredit a conditional political opponent. Such use of a statement outside the context of the source can really be perceived as a statement by Dostoevsky. 

In fact, the phrase is taken out of the context in which Dostoevsky critically discusses the European view of Russians: "I said that Russians are not liked in Europe. I think no one will argue about what they don't like, but, by the way, we are accused in Europe, all Russians, almost without exception, that we are terrible liberals, moreover, revolutionaries and always, with some kind of love, inclined to join the destructive rather than conservative elements of Europe. For this, many Europeans look at us mockingly and down – hatefully <...>. They see us more as barbarians wandering around Europe and rejoicing that something and somewhere can be destroyed - destroyed just for destruction, for the pleasure of just seeing how it all falls apart, like a horde of savages, like the Huns, ready to rush over ancient Rome and destroy the shrine, even without any idea about what kind of jewel they destroy" ^{[4, pp. 402-403]}.

It should be noted that the peak of the activity of using this phrase in the media occurred in the landmark 2014, in the current political conditions, the statement is experiencing a "second wave" of popularity as a means of information warfare against Of Russia.

Dostoevsky is often credited with phrases of negative characters in works – Smerdyakov, Stavrogin, and even the Devil. So, as a means of manipulating public consciousness, another pseudo-quote is also used from the same novel "Demons": "Russia will wake up, remember its Gods, and then such a swing will go around the world." It is absurd to assume that F.M. Dostoevsky expressed his own opinion through the mouth of Pyotr Verkhovensky – one of the main "demons" of the novel, the head of a secret organization, a political fanatic, a revolutionary whose goal is to continue the "turmoil" and ignite the struggle to seize power in the country.

In the eighth chapter "Ivan Tsarevich" we read: "We will proclaim destruction... <...> We will start fires... We'll start legends... <...> Well, the turmoil will begin! Such a swing will go, which the world has not seen yet... Russia will be clouded, the earth will cry for the old gods... Well, that's where we'll let..." ^{[3, p. 259]}.

Let's pay attention to a very important point: "pseudocytata" is a combination of several predicative units of the prototext, as a result of which cause-and-effect relationships change; in addition, the authors replace the lexemes key to understanding the meaning of the phrase with contextual antonyms (cf.: "Russia will be clouded" and "Russia will wake up").

A well-known researcher of F.M. Dostoevsky's work, T.A. Kasatkin, speaking about the features of the author's strategy of the writer, notes that he does not directly express the author's position, but "creates space for the formation of the reader's position <...> his texts are open to reader cooperation <...> he uses the word in his text not in its limited context, but in the fullness of its semantic field" ^{[14, p. 240]}. Many quotations from Dostoevsky's works in the media space cause lively discussions and "stimulate social activity" ^{[6, p. 11]}. Such activity is generated by the cliche saying "beauty will save the world", which in the media environment is considered a direct quote from the writer. However, the phrase belongs to several characters in the novel "Idiot" – Hippolytus and Aglaya – and is mentioned:

- exclusively in indirect speech: "Listen, once for all," Aglaya finally could not stand it, "if you talk about something like the death penalty, or about the economic state of Russia, or that "beauty will save the world," then... of course, I will rejoice and laugh a lot, but... I warn you in advance: don't show yourself to my eyes afterwards!" ^{[5, p. 482]};

- in an emphatically ironic tone: "Is it true, Prince, that you once said that the world would be saved by "beauty"? Gentlemen," he shouted loudly to everyone, "the prince claims that beauty will save the world! And I claim that he has such playful thoughts because he is now in love. Gentlemen, the Prince is in love; just now, as soon as he entered, I was convinced of it. Don't blush, Prince, I'll feel sorry for you. What kind of beauty will save the world?" ^{[5, p. 353]}.

It should also be noted that the modality of the statement changes from affirmative to interrogative.

Despite the fact that the phrase "beauty will save the world" is uttered by the characters of the novel, it is forwarded to F.M. Dostoevsky and used without taking into account the complex semantic load in a variety of spheres and contexts, which is facilitated by the ambiguity of the beauty lexeme. In an interview , Archpriest Andrey Tkachev rightly remarked: "He [Dostoevsky], despite all the complexity and shrillness, was also attached to a pocket quotation book. Under the letter "W" in the quotation book is Shakespeare. Opposite Shakespeare – "Did you pray at night, Desdemona?" Opposite Dostoevsky – "Beauty will save the world" <...> Since the words "beautiful" and "beauty" are universal and can refer to a goal scored, and to the landscape from the window of an elite new building, and to a catwalk show, Dostoevsky's words about beauty is easily pinned to hundreds of inappropriate phenomena. I myself heard these words during it in an advertisement for men's demi-season shoes" ^[43].

Indeed, the materials of a sample of media texts in which the phrase "beauty will save the world" is used indicate a tendency to shift it from a high, philosophical context to an everyday, everyday context in which beauty is understood literally as physical beauty. See, for example, advertising of cosmetics, beauty contests, names and slogans of beauty salons: LLC "Beauty will save the world" – the name of the network of beauty salons; "Beauty will save the world!" – the slogan of the beauty salon "Lotta"; "Beauty will save the world, and beauty – proper nutrition" – the advertising slogan of the information campaign on the formation of priorities of a healthy lifestyle among the population, etc.

3. Rumors and gossip concerning the facts of Dostoevsky's personal life.The well-known Russian linguist E.S. Kara–Murza notes that the mass media is "an area of increased speech danger and responsibility", in which conflicts regularly arise related to the abuse of freedom of speech, the dissemination of defamatory information, etc. ^{[13, p. 149]}.

F.M. Dostoevsky is often labeled as a convict, an epileptic, a gambler, but regardless of the degree of ethics and correctness of such "nominations", this has grounds supported by the facts of the writer's biography. However, "facts" that have not been confirmed by anything have also become widespread in the media space. So, the famous journalist A. Nevzorov regularly accuses Dostoevsky of pedophilia: "Dostoevsky is a "religious fanatic of the XIX century, strongly infused with epilepsy and pedophilia"" ^[42]; "It is useless to remember little peasant girls who were taken to the bathhouse for pedophile amusements by the generator of Orthodox spirituality" [ibid.]. Even Nevzorov commented on the proposal to canonize Dostoevsky in an emphatically sarcastic tone: "The iconographic image of the new saint will become a hit. The Prophet Theodore can be depicted naked, in a steam room, with a naked peasant girl of 10 years old, brought there for his "bath fun"" ^[33].

A. Nevzorov argues his accusations, referring to a letter from N.N. Strakhov to L.N. Tolstoy: Strakhov retells the words of Viskovatov, who claimed that F.M. Dostoevsky allegedly openly confessed to him the fact of seducing children. The slander propagated by Nevzorov has been refuted by the scientific community – the refutation was summarized, in particular, by S. Rublev, editor-in-chief of the online publication "Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Anthology of life and creativity" ^[21].

Numerous interviews, articles by Nevzorov, in which he unprovenly calls Dostoevsky a pedophile, can be explained by the axiological attitudes of the journalist – his pathological dislike of the writer.  Russian Russian writer Nevzorov regularly calls Dostoevsky "a reflex of lousy, lapotnaya, wax-drenched Russia on the movement of European thought" (2012) ^[45], "the father of the tradition of Russian Nazism" (2015) ^[30], "the ideologue of Russian Nazism and chauvinism" (2016), "literature for religious fanatics and Russian Nazis Russian Russian literature" (2016) ^[35], "the main pedophile of Russian literature" (2019) ^[31], "religious fanatic, pedophile writer" (2019), "ideologue of Russian Orthodox fascism" (2022); compares the love of Dostoevsky with "looking at cans of deformities in a teratological collection Kunstkamera" ^[45], etc.

ConclusionDostoevsky's precedent world is one of the brightest and most significant among the precedent worlds of creative personalities in the modern media discourse.

He embodies and implements the main trends of mass consciousness and national worldview, the facts of his biography and psychological traits of his personality, which also become the subject of replication in reduced, comic and gaming, and sometimes in analytical contexts-interpretations. Attribution of certain texts to the writer is due to the high degree of recognition of his name, as well as a playful rethinking of one of the argumentation techniques – appeals to authority.

However, the use of "pseudo-citations" signed with Dostoevsky's name in media texts, their active dissemination also has a negative side: social media is a kind of catalyst for the dissemination of false information, and, as you know, "you can believe even the largest falsification if you hear it often enough." As a result of such replication of outright fakes, participants in social and political movements can pass off their slogans as Dostoevsky's statements in order to assert their point of view and at the same time reduce personal responsibility for what was said. Among Dostoevsky's "pseudo–citations", those whose meaning can be conditionally designated as follows are particularly popular: "the Russian people are barbarians, revolutionaries capable of destroying for entertainment." The danger of such "fake quotes" lies in the fact that they are gladly picked up by Russophobic movements and used as an effective means of political struggle, propaganda and information warfare against Russia.