Andrey Bely’s novel Petersburg as Dostoevsky’s hybrid hypertext

Abstract

Andrei Bely’s “Petersburg” has been analyzed primarily with respect to its intertextual connections with Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. This essay offers a comparative analysis of Nikolai Apollonovich Ableukhov, the main character in A. Bely’s novel, and Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin, the main character of Dostoevsky's novel “Demons”. We see that, in reality, the “Stavrogin genealogy” of the younger Ableukhov begins already with his name and appearance and continues with extravagant acts committed or only conceived by him. In the context of intertextual connections, other character in Bely’s novel are also considered: Alexander Ivanovich Dudkin – as a kind of hybrid of Ivan Karamazov with Stavrogin, and Nikolai Stepanovich Lippanchenko – as the reincarnation of Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky or his hybrid with Nikolai Stavrogin. We conclude that, on the whole, Bely’s novel is a hybrid hypertext of Dostoevsky’s, in which “Demons” serves in the role of the main hypotext, and “The Brothers Karamazov” plays the role of a secondary hypotext. Thus, the hypertextuality of Bely’s novel in relation to Dostoevsky’s works is its constructive feature, outside of which it cannot be adequately perceived and interpreted.