Лихорадочные герои романа Идиот Ф. М. Достоевского (Тело и выход из тела)

Abstract

Prince Myshkin’s Fever

The paper analyses movements (gestures and poses) of the heroes in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot. Special attention is given to the group scenes where characters react “as one” (e.g. the Epanchin sisters, “Rogozhin’s loud group”). These frequently dramatic group scenes (Grossman’s “conclave”, Bakhtin’s carnivalisation) reveal distinctive characters, such as Nastasya Filippovna, Ippolit and, of course, the Prince. Their distinctiveness is fever which accompanies them and manifests itself in different ways. Fever is a liminal state (a state between illness and health) as well as a state of simultaneous illness (shivering) and health (defence mechanism) (Sontag 2016; Foucault 1988). Fever prepares all distinctive, liminal and feverish characters, i.e. Nastasya Filippovna, Ippolit and the Prince, to leave their body. Ippolit, who suffers from tuberculosis known as “consumption” in the 19th century, dies  immediately after the feverish scene in Pavlovsk; Nastasya Filippovna, who is in the state of fever from the onset of the novel, finally leaves her body literally and metaphorically (she is lying on the floor murdered without a visible body); Prince Myshkin, who suffers from epilepsy, and finally completely loses his mind, which makes him incapable of feeling and perceiving people around him.

Keywords: The Idiot, fever, body, resurrection