Download PDF

DOI 10.52172/2587-6945_2021_16_2_90

Abstract

The article considers the «dilogy» of the Soviet poet P. G. Antokolsky about F. M. Dostoevsky. In two poems of 1969–1971 «biographical myth» is created, reflecting Antokolsky’s views asa representative of his era on the pathos of Dostoevsky's works. The basis of this myth was the ideas of Soviet Dostoyevsky studies, the poet's own reading experience and his audience impressions of the staging of «Crime and Punishment» directed by Yu. V. Zavadsky. The content of the myth is a poetic story about the way a novice belletrist, poor and tongue-tied, like his heroes – «poor people», turns, having gone through trials of hard labor and painful epileptic seizures, into a humanist writer, a denouncer of social injustice and moral vices. A kind of moral tuning fork, according to which not only all of Dostoevsky's works is tuned, but also, as the poet wants to believe, modern life is Sonia Marmeladova performed by actress Iya Savvina. The «biographical myth» gains a wider meaning, incorporating ideas dating back to romanticism that literature, the writer’s word can change the reality and a man. In this sense, the «word» acquires sacred, magical features, and literature replaces religion and faith. From the content and pathos of Dostoevsky's works, their Christian component is eliminated. Antokolsky creates his «myth» not so much by logical means, not by persuading and creating certain «concepts», but by means of poetry – stylistic figures, tropes, euphony, suggestion.

Key words

P. G. Antokolsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, Sonya Marmeladova, biographical myth, writer about the writer, theatrical staging, comparative studies.