Experimental Novels by Nikolay Nekrasov and Feodor Dostoevsky in the Light of Ethnopoetics

Abstract

The article considers novels The Life and Adventures of Tikhon Trostnikov (1843) by N. A. Nekrasov and Humiliated and Insulted (1861) by F. M. Dostoevsky as experimental works in which the authors sought to combine European and national traditions. The reference to biographical material, the use of the structural method allowed to discover the similarity in genre content of the works and the difference of ideological attitudes of the authors. Both novels were created as autobiographical works, adventurous and satiric, included elements of “natural essay”, but each of the authors sought to use national genre content: Nekrasov's is a folk drama, and Dostoevsky refers to the traditions of Old Russian calendar literature, a literary story that shows the verification of the Holy Scriptures. Nekrasov failed to create a complete work, largely due to the narrative form, in which in some cases the parody begins to appear. But Dostoevsky managed to bring the novel to a new level, especially in his last works The Raw Youth and The Brothers Karamazov. Performing the task of “restoring the lost man”, Dostoevsky turns to the church calendar, Gospel allusions and parable plot.