Dmitry Grigorovich’s Literary Memoirs: Axiology and Plot

Abstract

Referring to the memoirs of Dmitry Grigorovich, this article considers the general principles of axiology and plot of the memoir text. A contemporary of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grigorovich became the “last chronicler” of the era of the 1840s. In this article, the author attempts to read Literary Memoirs as a work of fiction (novel), establishing typological connections between everyday sketches and essay-like sketches and plot situations that have a literary genesis. First, the author examines the phenomenon of Dmitry Grigorovich’s creative work in the axiology aspects. It is demonstrated that the symbolic capital of the writer’s name, despite the authority and significance of some of his works, was lost by the end of the nineteenth century. In this regard, the main intention of “literary recollections” is understood as an attempt to correct the past (represented by the narratives of Ivan Panaev, Avdotya Panaeva, and Pavel Annenkov), having experienced it in the present, i.e., through writing and auto-description. The main part of the article is devoted to the interpretation of plot models of memoirs and the principles of selection of historical figures. Often this selection itself (the choice of a publicist or a memoirist, what to write about and what to keep silent about) contains significant resources for auto-commentary. For example, in the description of childhood experience, referring the reader to the novels of Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, and John Greenwood, one can trace “heraldic” features that frame the writer’s experience. Particular attention is paid to the figures central to the memoirs — Fyodor Dostoevsky and Alexander Dumas, embodying the specific features of the national writer and genius, with an individual portrait of Grigorovich himself built between them.