The Concept Besovstvo at the Time and Space Level in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Devils. Article 1

The article focuses on the representation of the core concept besovstvo at the level of space and time in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Devils. In the work, the method of conceptological analysis of the literary text is used, whereby it was identified that the core plot- and sensemaking concept of the novel - besovstvo - is represented at the level of space and time. The features of the concept besovstvo elicited through the general review of the novel, which show themselves in spatial and temporal details of the novel’s worldview, can be divided into three types: describing the characters’ model of time (the end of time, extinction), the space (chaos), and the type of motion in space (spin, breakdown). The first article considers three of the five mentioned features: the end of time, extinction, and chaos. The feature of the end of time appears within the narration time in the dialogues of characters via clashes of their understandings of nature and the meaning of time as an existential substance. Different attitudes to the sacred idea of the end of time were identified in the devils-destructionists; the possessed; Dasha, aware of the approaching of the devastating end; and Stavrogin, still passionately seeking the truth, but having lost the ability to believe. The time of the devil characters is linear. The possessed characters perceive it through the distortion of the Orthodox values. Stavrogin’s world perception is described by the position out of space and time, caused by his disbelief of the “moribund truths” of the fathers and the fruitlessness of the search for the new ideal, which generated the loss of the force and meaning of life. Introducing the feature of extinction that combines the spatial and temporal meanings, Dostoevsky points to the inevitability of the tragic outcome, as long as the linear time of the destructionists leads to the annihilation of life and at the same time designates the causes of what is happening, raises the question of the misfortune and blame of the young generation and the society as a whole. The significant role in the novel’s worldview belongs to the feature of chaos, mainly represented in the words of the chronicler, describing the characters’ motion in space. Via the feature of chaos, Dostoevsky reveals the scale of the consequences of the moral statute destruction and the besovstvo propagation mechanisms determined by the loss of traditional values and search for the new orienting points, which turn out to be false. The other aspect of the feature is connected with the fact that it is allusive to Pushkin’s epigraph, in which the devils’ sabbath serves as one of the symbolic features of the space of national existence, generating the contradictions of the national consciousness. The elicited features reveal metaphysical aspects of the author’s understanding of the nature of besovstvo and its wide distribution. The study of the characters’ temporal conceptualization and spatial features of their deeds clarifies their images revealed by research.

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