Allusions to Dostoevsky’s Creative Work in Yury Buida’s Collection The Law of the Jungle

Abstract

Changes in the spiritual life of modern society actualise the controversy of new writers with the fundamental ideas of Russian classical literature. The purpose of this article is to analyse the influence of certain aspects of Dostoevsky’s worldview and creative work on the poetics and issues considered in Yury Vasilievich Buida’s stories Lethe , Kazan Railway Station , and The Law of the Jungle . The authors aim to identify the similarities and differences in the depiction of the world and man, typological convergences at the level of motifs and plots, key symbols characteristic of Dostoevsky, and their new interpretation. The authors establish that the philosophical problem of the relationship between man and God, fundamental for Dostoevsky’s worldview and the question of the significance of Christian and ethical categories in society are important for the author’s concept of Buida’s works. The modern writer portrays lost people guided by primitive instincts, abiding in a peculiar space of material and spiritual poverty, but in their own way looking for God. However, to a larger extent than Dostoevsky’s characters, Buida’s characters are characterised by the acceptance of life due to their subconscious striving for light and good. The revealed images and motifs, typologically similar to the corresponding elements of Dostoevsky’s poetics, are aimed at complicating the cultural and historical context of the Jungle collection in order to clarify the social issues of boundary time and the basic concept of the book by Buida. The images of the garden, stairs, axe, stone, which have a pronounced allusive character, turn out to be connected with the existential model of the universe proposed by the modern prose writer. The motif complex of Lethe , Kazan Railway Station , The Law of the Jungle , which reveals the author’s references to classical texts, contributes to the expression of the philosophical idea of the loss of spirituality and sometimes the unconscious existence of modern man.