The reception of The Tales of the Late IvanPetrovichBelkin byA.S. Pushkin in F.M. Dostoevsky's Poor Folk: images and motives

In the article, the reception of The Belkin Tales by A.S. Pushkin in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel Poor Folk is investigated. Such plot-narrative details as the image of a pot with balsam, the motive of a kiss, the image of celestial birds, the description of a spring morning are mentioned. The commenting of the "little man" images (Makar Devushkin, Samson Vyrin, Adrian Prokhorov) goes beyond the generally accepted socio-psychological framework. The development of relations between Devushkin and Dobroselova is constantly accompanied by the receptive references to the story The Postmaster. The dialogic parallelism of the development of the "prodigal son" plot gives a philosophically existential depth to the receptive references. The mythopoetic component of the receptive dialogue is emphasized. References to Pushkin's text dialogically actualize Pushkin's complementarity between biblical and fantastic projections, which demonstrates the drama of a person who in "self-blindness" pretends to have a selfish patronage over another person. As opposed to The Postmaster, which only presents the drama of a father who was not able to accept his daughter's happiness, Poor Folk is already the drama of two people, and it does not assume a successful resolution of the conflict. The semantics of self-blindness/self-consciousness allows to include the image of Pushkin's undertaker from The Belkin Tales in the novel's receptive sphere. Adrian Prokhorov is a "little man", who is presented as a worthy and even self-sufficient man. In The Belkin Tales he is the only character from the lower class who tries to emphasize the value of his existence in order to justify it. Traditionally, Makar De-vushkin's self-awareness acts are compared to Gogol's The Overcoat (Bashmachkin) and The Diary of a Madman (Poprishchin). However, there are also reminiscences from Pushkin's story in the novel. In the story The Undertaker, the posthumous world, inper-sonated in Samson Vyrin, visually appears and becomes the space where the "little man" shows outraged pride and desire for self-justification, which are common features in Dostoevsky's characters. Makar Devushkin refuses to acknowledge his humiliated situation. He is a variant of the "proud man", who, according to Dostoevsky's remark, was first accurately captured by Pushkin. The nature of Makar Devushkin's rebellion is determined not so much by external factors as by the latent processes of self-awareness: the character is poor but not humiliated at work. The context of The Belkin Tales highlights Makar Devushkin's internal evolution. The reading of Pushkin's stories nurtures his pride and self-esteem - these are qualities which make Pushkin's characters suffer and perish in case they do not find humility in themselves. In the following Dostoevsky's novels, reminiscences of The Belkin Tales invariably accompany the author's analysis of contradictions of the human nature.

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