Did Dostoevsky Have an Unrealized Intention Known as “The Usurer”? Cover Image

Был ли у Достоевского неосуществленный замысел под названием "Ростовщик"?
Did Dostoevsky Have an Unrealized Intention Known as “The Usurer”?

Author(s): Boris Nikolaevich Tikhomirov
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: Dostoevsky; artistic laboratory; textual criticism; attribution; unrealized intention; biographical context; crosscutting motifs; prototypes

Summary/Abstract: The article concerns the attribution of one essay from Dostoevsky’s notebook going back to 1866−1867 (The Russian State Archive of Literature and Arts. Fund 212.1.5. P. 10). Both in the 1st and in the 2d editions of the scholarly Complete Works this essay was considered to be a preparatory material for an unrealized intention of the beginning of 1866 entitled by the publishers “The Usurer” (“Rostovschik”). The article provides us with alternative researches permitting to date the essay to Autumn 1867 and offers a supposition of belonging of the records on this page to the preparatory materials for the novel “The Idiot” going back to Autumn 1867. The arguments of the publishers of the Complete Works are exposed to critical estimation. The position of the essay among surrounding writings in the notebook is studied as well as its contents reechoing with the draft materials of the “Idiot”. The problem of prototypes is also envisaged (in terms of designation of crosscutting motifs). The specificity of the essay impedes its attribution.

  • Issue Year: 4/2017
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 3-15
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: English, Russian