Literature vs Psychopathology (On the Autobiographic Subtext of Dostoevsky’s Tale The Double)

Affiliation: Institute of Russian Literature (the Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Address: 4 Makarov Embankment, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia

Journal name

Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka

Edition

Volume 82 Issue 3

Pages

35-42

Abstract

The article shows that Dostoevsky’s tale “he Double” was created in an atmosphere of gradual maturation of Dostoevsky’s break with Belinsky’s circle. In different chapters of this tale, various moments in the development of his attitude towards Dostoevsky were refracted – from delight and admiration to skepticism and rejection. The final break between Dostoevsky and Belinsky’s circle, which followed after the appearance of “Belinsky’s Message do Dostoevsky”, was preceded by a long development of accumulated contradictions, which, obviously, falls on November – December 1845. Thus, it took place just at the time when Dostoevsky was writing the last chapters of his story, in which Golyadkin Jr. shows all his cunning towards Golyadkin Sr. At the same time, there are features in Golyadkin Jr. that, apparently, contain allusions to some features of the personality of the young Turgenev, known to us from the reviews of memoirists. “The Double” itself is not a monument to a mental crisis or a manifesto of a psychopathological state, but an attempt by the writer to figure out how and why all this happened to him, and thereby overcome that happened through literary creativity.

Keywords

Dostoevsky, psychopathology, “The Double”, tale, madness, Ivan Turgenev, Belinsky’s circle

Acknowledgment

This study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation, project № № 21-18-004

Received

27.06.2023

Publication date

28.06.2023

Number of characters

23111

Cite

GOST	Kibalnik S. Literature vs Psychopathology (On the Autobiographic Subtext of Dostoevsky’s Tale “The Double”) // Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka – 2023. – V. 82. – Issue 3 C. 35-42 [Electronic resource]. URL: https://izv-oifn.ru/S160578800026312-9-1 (circulation date: 18.05.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S160578800026312-9
MLA	Kibalnik, Sergej "Literature vs Psychopathology (On the Autobiographic Subtext of Dostoevsky’s Tale “The Double”)." Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 82.3 (2023):35-42. DOI: 10.31857/S160578800026312-9
APA	Kibalnik S. (2023). Literature vs Psychopathology (On the Autobiographic Subtext of Dostoevsky’s Tale “The Double”). Izvestiia Rossiiskoi akademii nauk. Seriia literatury i iazyka 82(3), pp.35-42 DOI: 10.31857/S160578800026312-9

100 rub.

When subscribing to an article or issue, the user can download PDF, evaluate the publication or contact the author. Need to register.

Number of purchasers: 0, views: 180

Readers community rating: votes 0

1. Grigoryev, A.A. “Peterburgskiy sbornik” [“The St. Petersburg Collection”]. Finskiy vestnik [Finnish Bulletin]. 1846, No. 9, Part V, pp. 27–32. (In Russ.)

2. Belinsky, V.G. Polnoye sobraniye sochinenij v 13 t. [Complete Works in 13 Vols]. Moscow, Izd-vo AN SSSR Publ., 1953–1959. (In Russ.)

3. Chizh, V.F. Dostoevskiy kak psikhopatolog. Ocherk. [Dostoevsky as a Psycjopathologist. An Essay]. Moscow, 1885. 123 p. (In Russ.)

4. Reber, N. Studien zum Motiv des Doppelgängers bei Dostojewskij und E.T.A. Hoffmann. Gießen, 1964. 240 S. (In Germ.)

5. Zakharov, V.N. Tragediya Goliadkina (o povesti Dostoevskogo “Dvoinik”) [Golyadkin’s Tragedy (on Dostoesvky’s Tale “The Double”)]. O traditsiyah i novatorstve v literature [About Traditions and Innovation in Literature]. Ufa, 1976, Issue 4, pp.115–129. (In Russ.)

6. Zakharov, V.N. Genialnyi “Dvoynik”: pochemu kritiki ne ponimayut Dostoevskogo? [The Ingenious “Double”: Why Critics Don’t Understand Dostoevsky?]. Neizvestnyi Dostoevsky [Unknown Dostoevsky]. 2020, No. 3, pp. 31–53. (In Russ.)

7. Nabokov, V.V. Sobraniye sochineniy v 4 t. [Complete Works in 4 Vols.]. Vol. 3. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1990. 480 p. (In Russ.)

8. Zakharov, V.N. Sistema zhanrov Dostoevskogo. Tipologiya i poetika [Dostoevsky’s System of Genres: Typology and Poetics]. Leningrad, 1985. 208 p. (In Russ.)

9. F.M. Dostoevsky v vospominaniyah sovremennikov v 2 t. [F.M. Dostoevsky in Memoirs of Contemporaries in 2 Vols.]. Moscow, Hudozhestvennaya literature Publ, 1990. (In Russ.)

10. Dostoevsky, F.M. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy i pisem v 35 t. Khudozhestvennyie proizvedeniya. T. 1–3 [Complete Works: in 35 Vols. Artistic Works. Vol. 1–3]. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2013–2015. (In Russ.)

11. Dostoevsky, F.M. Polnoye sobraniye sochinenij i pisem v 30 t. [Complete Works in 30 Vols]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1972–1990. (In Russ.)

12. Turgenev, I.S. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy i pisem vv 28 t. [Complete Works: in 28 Volumes]. Sochinenya: V 15 t. Pisma: V 13 t. [Artistic Works: in 15 Vols. Letters: in 13 Vols.]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1960–1968. (In Russ.)

13. Tikhomirov, B.Ns. Stikhotvornoye “Poslaniye Belinskogo k Dostoevskomu”. Itogi i problemy izucheniya [“The Poetic “Belinsky’s Message to Dostoevsky”. Results and Issues of its Studies]. Novyie arhivnyie i pechatnyie istochniki nauchnoi biografii F.M. Dostoevskogo. Kollektivnaya monographiya. 2-e izd. [New Archival and Printed Sources of the Scientific Biography of F.M. Dostoevsky: A Collective Monograph. 2nd Edition]. St. Petersburg, RHGA Publ., 2021, pp. 150–168. (In Russ.)

14. Letopis zhizni i tvorchestva F.M. Dostoevskogo v 3 t. [The Chronicle of F.M. Dostoevsky’s Life and Works Activity]. Vol. 1: 1821–864. St. Petersburg, Akademicheskiy proekt Publ., 1993. 530 p. (In Russ.)

15. Turgenev, I.S. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy i pisem v 30 t. Sochinenya v 18 t. Pisma: V 12 t. [Complete Works in 30 Vols. Artistic Works: in 18 Vols. Letters: in 12 Vols.]. Leningrad, St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 1978–. (In Russ.)

16. Panaeva, A.Ja. Literaturnye vospominaniya. [Literary Memoirs]. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1986. 416 p. (In Russ.)

17. Chukovskiy, K. “Pleyada Belinskogo i Dostoevskiy” (Vstupitelnyi ocherk k “Kamennomu serdtsu”) [“Belinsky and Dostoevsky’s Galaxy” (An Introduction to “The Stone Heart”]. Nekrasov, N.A. Tonkiy chelovek i drugiye neizdannye proizvedeniya. Sobral i poyasnil K. Chukovskiy [“The Thin Manˮ and Other Unpublished Works. Collected and Explained K. Chukovsky]. Moscow, Federatsiya Publ., 1928, pp. 5–22. (In Russ.)

18. Nekrasov, N.A. Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy v 15 t. [Complete Works in 15 Vols]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1981–2000. (In Russ.)

19. Annenkov, P.V. Literaturnye vospominaniya [Literary Memoirs]. Moscow, Pravda Publ., 1989. 688 p. (In Russ.)

20. Osipov, N. “Dvoynik”: “Peterburgskaya poema” F.M. Dostoevskogo [“The Double: St. Petersburg Poem”]. O Dostoevskom. Sbornik statey. Praga, 1929/1933/1936 [About Dostoevsky: Collection of Articles. Prague, 1929/1933/1936]. Moscow, Russkiy put Publ., 2007, pp. 74–90 (In Russ.)

21. Kibalnik, S.A. Kriptographisheskiye obrazy I.S.Turgeneva v tvorchestve F.M. Dostoevskogo 1860-h godov [“The Cryprographic Images” of I.S. Turgenev in F.M. Dostoevsky’s Works of the 1860s]. Filologichekiye nauki [Philological Sciences]. 2019, No. 2, pp. 77–86. (In Russ.)

22. Kadyrov, I.M. “Dvoynik” F.M. Dostoevskogo: popytka psihoanaliticheskoy interpretatsii [Dostoesvky’s “The Double”: An Attempt of Psychoanalytic Interpretation]. Konsultativnaya psihologiya i psihoterapiya [Counseling Psychology and Psychotherapy.]. 2002, Vol. 10, No. 1. URL: https://psyjournals.ru/mpj/2002/n1/Kadyrov_full.shtml (In Russ.)

23. Daugovish, S. Prevrashcheniye “malenkogo geroya” (I. Panaev i F. Dostoevskiy) [The Transformation of “Little Genius” in “Little Hero” (I.I. Panaev and F.M. Dostoevsky]. “Pedagogiya” F.M. Dostoevskogo [“Pedagogyˮ of F.M. Dostoevsky]. Kolomna, 2003, pp. 62–65. (In Russ.)

24. Peace, R. Dostoevsky’s “Little Hero” and “The Knight of the Sad Countenance”. Life and Text: Essays in Honour of Geir Kjetsaa on the Occasion of his 60th Birthday. Oslo, 1997, pp. 221–237.