DANTE’S INFERNO IN F.M. DOSTOEVSKY’S CREATIVE PERCEPTION

Abstract

Dante's Divine Comedy can be attributed to the works of world literature. The first Russian translations of Dante's Divine Comedy appeared in the early 19th century, which made the poem an integral part of Russian culture. There is no doubt that Dostoevsky read The Divine Comedy and was fully aware of its significance. His editorial to the translation of Victor Hugo's Notre Dame published in the jounral Vremya in 1862 contains a direct reference to Dante's poem. Apparently, Dostoevsky considered The Divine Comedy a model work in which the author managed to capture the essence of his era and achieve that his literary was included in the list of world literature masterpieces. The Annals of Dostoevsky's Life and Creative Works contains only three references to Dante, each of which is connected with Dostoevsky's Notes from the House of the Dead. The comparison with Dante in this case seems natural and even symptomatic. The first part of Dante's poem, ``Inferno{''}, has always produced a deep impression on readers, and Notes from the House of the Dead relate to death, afterlife, other worlds, and hell even in its title. Other works by Dostoevsky can also be analysed within this paradigm. This view appoach appears very productive and adequate to the artistic space of Dostoevsky's works. Dante's Inferno is a very strict organization. It is divided into nine circles, each of which is narrower than the previous. Each circle corresponds to a particular passion. There the reader meets a particular penalty many a time. This penalty implies the appearance of someone's dual personality. The most important feature of the torments represented by Dante is that they are always, in all circles, innate to a person. Another aspect that seems important for understanding of Dante's Inferno is the opposition of the living and the dead. To understand how the Hell in Dostoevsky's works is made, it is necessary to address the writer's vocabulary, in which the word `hell' has three menaings. These meanings reflect consistent metaphorization and distancing from the main meaning - the underworld, which is less often found in Dostoevsky's works. The motif of `wearing hell on the heart' is also obvious in Dosteovsky's works. It is manifested in his early works to remain topical up to his last novel. Hell by Dostoevsky, though spatially fixed, is unmistakably the otherworldly diabolical topos named as Hell. Yet in this space there is always a person who suffers from the infernal impact and struggles against it and its creations. Dostoevsky tends to specify the location of his works. All the novels of his `Pentateuch' have a marked chronotope. It gives the reason to believe that this was the way for Dostoevsky to emphasise the importance of the scene. The story The Double, in particular, is a vivid representation of the writer's topographical accuracy. Golyadkin's path is visionary, falling out of the normal course of the life. The space of St. Petersburg in the novel is distorted, so the hero in this distorted world has no free will any longer; he is ruled by St. Petersburg that inevitably leads him to his doppelganger. This image of St. Petersburg is typical for Dostoevsky and can be related to his personal perception of the city. In the 1840s, the period of his first literary works, the writer planned a trip to Europe, as he wrote to his brother Mikhail in the letter of October 7, 1846. It was then when St. Petersburg is referred to as `hell' and contrasted to the coveted visit to Europe, particularly to Italy. However, later in this opposition of these poles to completely change its meaning. Later, however, these poles will completely change their meanings within this opposition. The hero's unceasing movement in the space correlates with the original title of the novel - The Adventures of Mr. Goliadkin. This method of the hero's action within the narration consists in constant motion, changing locations. It is a kind of `wandering' correlates with the `journey' of the hero of Dante's Divine Comedy, the narrative of which is based on descent. Comparing the above-mentioned works reveals the connection of the phenomena of dopplegangers and hell embodied in the artistic space, with obviously dialectal interaction and different poles.