Автоинтертекстуальность и научная интерпретация (на примере «фантастического рассказа» Ф. М. Достоевского «Сон смешного человека»)

Abstract

The article presents a detailed and systematic examination of self-references in Dostoevsky’s story «A Funny Man’s Dream» from his previous works: «Notes from the Underground», «Demons», «Crime and Punishment», «The Adolescent», «A Writer’s Diary». In relation to “Notes from the Underground”, Dostoevsky’s «fantastic story» is even considered as an “auto-hypertext”. Detection of these self-references makes it possible to observe the deep connection of the main motives of «A Funny Man’s Dream» with Dostoevsky’s other texts and also to significantly clarify the main ideas of this «fantastic story». This approach also allows us to challenge the validity of Mikhail Bakhtin’s interpretation of the story. His inaccurate reading of the autointertextual features, which the story shares with many other previous and subsequent works of Dostoevsky, prevents Bakhtin from catching the writer-specific formulation of the theme. Accordingly, he does not notice such motives as the destructive nature of the pervasive «indifference», the impossibility of preserving the «integrity» of consciousness in the modern world and, at the same time, the costs of the development of consciousness in man. He also misses the concept of the renewal of the world, which is embodied in the story, where, contrary to Bakhtin’s opinion, Christian categories play an essential role.