The Germany's Image in F.M. Dostoevsky's Siberian Works

Dostoevsky's Siberian works present a vivid, multidimensional image of Germany, created by topographic contrast as an attempt to reflect on national identity. If Siberia is the quintessence of Russia, then Germany is a symbol and centre of European civilization. On the one hand, Dostoevsky admires European culture (literature, philosophy, education), while on the other hand, the comic genre implies the reduction and parody of negative features of reality. The fruits of a cultural dialogue down to the extreme mindless passion for Germany are depicted in the humorous mode. The analysis of the writer's Siberian works demonstrates the following tendency: the lower the character's education, the worse his attitude to German (Gregory). On the contrary, people of culture show a different attitude towards Germany: respect and admiration, often leading to a loss of patriotism (Vidoplyasov, Opiskin, Prince K.). The “German world” in Dostoevsky's artistic metatext undergoes mythopoetic processing. The writer not only inherits the literary tradition of satirical depiction of German artefacts and cultural signs, but makes it more profound. The comic art images are built on a paradox, oxymoron (a beard the size of a German state, Trentius-Kant-turkey, the prince falls ill after hydropathy, etc.). The image of Germany is created stereoscopically, through iconic cultural artefacts - symbols of the country and personalities representing the heights of German culture (Kant, Beethoven, Schiller, Goethe). The writer indentifies the most important topoi: Karlsruhe - the city of the sun founded by Margrave Charles III Wilhelm; Frankfurt - the repository of the state treasury. The water resorts of Bad, Ems, Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden are represented implicitly. The symbol of German technological progress is a mechanical toy of a couple in love, demonstrating the conventional attitude of a gentleman to his lady. There are no vivid images of German characters: they are minor episodic characters. As a rule, they are nameless (entomologist, manager), or have typical names (Louise Karlovna). It should be clarified that one of the reasons for creating satirical, cartoon-like images was not Dostoevsky's negative attitude towards Germany as such, but rather his insufficient knowledge of the German language, which seemed to him difficult and discordant; therefore, in Siberian works, German expressions are more often given in Russian vocalisation. Using comic means of aesthetics, hyperbolisation, emphasis, and antithesis, Dostoevsky succeeds in raising serious questions about the purity of the Russian language, prestige and quality of European education, feasibility of cultural transplantation, and preservation of national identity.

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