Realism of Dostoevsky

Literary scholars noted that Dostoevsky embedded his works in the reality surrounding him, and did not create a new one for them. The writer relied on real facts, localities, real meetings, newspaper reports and reports. Real characters and events were continued and additional details in the works of the author ^[4] . Dostoevsky himself described the process of his work as follows: “I like, wandering the streets, looking at other, completely unfamiliar passers-by, studying their faces and guessing who they are, how they live, what they do and what interests them especially at this moment” ^{[4 ]} .

Dostoevsky’s faith in the reality of the events he describes is most characteristic in the introduction to the story “ The Boy is at the Christmas Tree ”: “But I am a novelist and, it seems, I composed one story myself. Why I write: “it seems”, because I myself probably know what I composed, but it seems to me that this happened somewhere and once, it happened exactly on the eve of Christmas, in some huge city and in a terrible frost". The writer “probably knows” that he composed the story, but at the same time he seems to believe in the reality of the described events ^[5] .

The creation of realistic works required exact places and details, therefore, in his letters, the writer demanded to inform him of everything that was happening to the smallest detail, especially at a time when he himself was abroad. The writer also takes incidents and incidents from newspapers ^[5] . The reality for Dostoevsky is first of all details, trifles, random incidents, scandals and crimes. The writer simultaneously seeks reality and is afraid of it. This “love-hate” of his makes him suffer and torment readers ^[6] . Dostoevsky especially loves a variety of digital refinements: the number of steps, steps, days, hours. Also, many details appear in the narrative in the form of refinements that one of the characters recalls. The mystery of the incident and the “absence” of facts to clarify something are often noted ^[7] .

Many of Dostoevsky's contemporaries, in search of a common and widespread, described some “smoothed” averaged reality. Fyodor Mikhailovich called such authors recording a characteristic environment “typical”, considering them the lowest kind of writers. Reality, according to Dostoevsky, is masterful and full of details and trifles. While all attempts to homogenize it are caused by the poor imagination of writers. The idea, hidden in reality, can be expressed only by individual, absolutely single phenomena ^[6] . At the same time, an event that was not, but could be, has the same value in the eyes of the writer ^[7] .

Reality is not characterized by stagnation and certainty, therefore, in his work, Dostoevsky avoids complete opinions and positions. So, following the idea of ​​Raskolnikov leads to murder and loneliness, while liberation from the preconceived idea in the novel “Teenager” allows the hero to become a person ^[8] . In a letter to Solovyov, Dostoevsky notes that it is impossible "to bring thought to the end." The heroes of Dostoevsky are constantly evolving personalities; they lack completeness and stability ^[9] .

The communication of characters in the works of Dostoevsky also occurs independently of the reader. Numerous “omissions and omissions” create an atmosphere of ongoing conversation, the beginning of which took place without a visible count on the reader ^[7] .

Realism in the works of Dostoevsky was largely achieved through the creation of storytellers, which allowed the writer to put himself into action, while maintaining the objectivity of the presentation ^[3] . Dostoevsky “believed” in the images of storytellers he created ^[3] .

The spiritual proximity of the author and the narrator distinguished the work of Dostoevsky from the work of such writers as Gogol and Leskov, whose storytellers, on the contrary, allowed the authors to completely withdraw from the narrative ^[3] .

The use of inexperienced storytellers, who are chroniclers and reporters, rather than professional writers, allows Dostoevsky to build the illusion of a story about real events. To hide the writer's “omniscience”, the sources of information of the narrator are constantly indicated, which for the same purpose often turn out to be incomplete or contradictory. The process of collecting information is also shown ^[7] . The narrator at Dostoevsky may be surprised at what is happening, thereby showing the complete independence of the events of the work from the author ^[7] .

The artistic understatement used to strengthen reality brings Dostoevsky's work closer to Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades and The Bronze Horseman by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, whose work Dostoevsky always had a special relationship ^[9] .

• Likhachev D. S. In Search of the Expression of the Real // Dostoevsky. Materials and research / ed. G. M. Friedlander . - Leningrad: Science, 1974. - T. 1. - S. 5-13. - 352 p. - 15,000 copies.