О связности “полифонических монологов” Достоевского: типология, безымянность и антономазия смешных подпольных “мечтателей”

Abstract

On the Coherence of Dostoevsky’s “polyphonic monologues”: Typology, Namelessness, and Antonomasia of Ridiculous underground “dreamers”

In the anti-Romantic context of Dostoevsky’s four short novellas spanning thirty years of his literary career (White Nights [1848], Notes from the Underground [1864], The Meek One [1876], The Dream of a Ridiculous Man [1877]), this study posits that each structured as an apparent protagonist-driven “monologue” is, in essence, a paradoxical “polyphonic monologue”. The four narrators share the same complex dialogic interactions within themselves and with internalized external addressees, and the distinctive, uncommon feature of anonymity. Together with other textual elements, their namelessness confirms that they are curious anti-romantic characters with the diegetic role of “types” (“the dreamer”, “the man from underground”, “the ridiculous man”, “the coward”). Following an overview of onomastic practices across Dostoevsky’s oeuvre, the analysis focuses on the mechanism allowing “anonymity” to reverse in “antonomasia”. Ultimately, the four narratives show their consistence with the strategies of ambivalence and derision which is characteristic of Dostoevsky’s broader creative vision.

Keywords: Dostoevsky; monologue; onomastics; anonymity; ridiculousness