Krinitsyn A.B. On the Specificity of Dostoevsky’s Hero-Ideologist as a Literary Type

Abstract: The purpose of the present research is to trace back the mechanism of developing the type of a 'hero-ideologist' in Dostoevsky's fiction after his penal servitude starting from his Notes from Underground and filling in conceptual gaps in particular novels by outlining common typical features and ideas in characters' minds. This allows to analyze Dostoevsky's literary texts written since 1865 until 1880 as a single hypertext. According to the author, the source of future ideas is the 'underground psychology' depriving the hero of the face-to-face communication and 'dreaming' that predetermines 'fanstastic' and 'contemplative' ideas. These ideas may have only two vectors: theantropic ideas that attributes human qualities and emotions to God and ideas that see God as the outward projection of a human's inward nature. While the theantropic idea implies the return of Christ's Kingdom on Earth (Millenium), the main purpose suggested by the other idea is that human can live on Earth alone without God. The transfer from romantic individualism towards a reilgious super-purpose (to save and to 'reshape' the humankind) becomes possible due to the aesthetic element of the idea which serves as some kind of the ideal of beauty and an intermediate link between religious and romantic types of thinking. The idea that God is the human's outward projection creates philosophical subgrounds for crime which can intent to be a murder, political crime, suicide, 'deicide', or patricide, which is supposed to prove the idea and thus gains the sacral meaning in these terms. The author suggests that we should call such a deed 'super-action' because it is designated to change the hero's being and surroundings. The super-action occurs to be the only action the hero-ideologist is capable of. It is the narrative climax and the only important action made by the hero in his life. In the long run, Dostoevsky's heroes-ideologists are the 'one deed heroes' but not the 'one intrigue heroes'. The antithesis to the super-action is the experience of living in paradise which followers of both ideas may have. In his research the author has used hermeneutic, historical literary and comparative typological research methods accompanied with the theological and cultural findings and data. The author's special contribution to the topic is his conclusion about the unity of all heroes-ideologists in Dostoevsky's 'Pentateuch' despite their outward difference. The author also offers a new interpretation of particular ideas presented by Dostoevsky's heroes. For the first time in the academic literature the ideology of Dostoevsky's heroes is being viewed inseparably from their psychological grounds and narrative function. The results of the research can be used to analyze Dostoevsky's fiction as part of University general and special courses as well as at secondary schools. 

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