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ANCIENT TRAGEDY IN DOSTOEVSKYВ’S WORKS

Anna Nilova, M. Nilova

Abstract

The problem of Dostoevsky and antiquity was raised at the beginning of the 20th century in the works of V. Ivanov and L. Pumpyanskiy, but has not yet received consistent study. The authors of the works on Dostoevsky usually deal with particular aspects of this problem. Dostoevsky knew and highly appreciated ancient literature and often addressed it in his works. The article deals with the development of the principles of the ancient tragedy in Dostoevsky's work on the example of "The Diary of a Writer" and the novel "The Idiot". In this paper we describe the writer's understanding of the phenomenon of the ancient tragedy, the features of its structure and conflict; we analyze how Dostoyevsky uses tragic conflict, chorus and the tragic hero. For the publicistic and artistic works of Dostoevsky, the moral conflict formed by the ancient tragedy is extremely important, as well as the moral result of the tragedy itself. In his attempts to portray a "positively beautiful" person, he turns to the normative hero of the tragedies of Sophocles. The conflict and the system of characters in the tragedies of Sophocles influenced the development of the conflict and the system of images in the novel "The Idiot". The article concludes that Dostoevsky's theoretical views are close to those represented in Aristotle's "Poetics". We slso state that there is a need for further research on the reflection of the ancient drama (tragedy and comedy) in Dostoevsky's works, not only on the level of figurative parallels, but also on a conceptual level.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgemsocial2018/6.2/S27.059

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