The inn as a place of confession. On a feature of the art world of Dostoevsky

Abstract

The object of study of the article is both the place that the word of confession occupies in the work of Dostoevsky and the place in which the word of confession itself is pronounced by the characters of the writer. As a literary form, confession is an inheritor of the Christian tradition, but subsequently the original intention to repent became unrecognizable among many other motives. The article notes that Dostoevsky's secularization of this religious motif took on a very specific form, associated with his famous romantic dream of seeing the world as a monastic dormitory; of uniting the secular and the sacred in order to give a sacred status to everyday life. The article examines the connection between Dostoevsky's confessional word and one of the places where it is spoken - the inn (as well as other drinking establishments). In order to highlight Dostoevsky's idea regarding the functions and goals of drinking establishments in general, the article focuses on his profile as an urban writer. Following is a discussion of specific cases (from “The Brothers Karamazov” and “Crime and Punishment”), in which the word of confession was spoken in a drinking establishment. The fact that the most philosophically saturated part of the writer's last novel is situated in this specific urban space is emphasized. The connection between the word of confession and the dirty inn is seen as part of Dostoevsky's creative experiments, as a test of the “endurance” of intimate, suffering ideas and faith in a completely random environment. This is the proposed explanation for the constant confrontation of the sacred and the profane, which we find in the work of the writer.