DOSTOEVSKY’S NOVEL “THE ADOLESCENT” AS A BILDUNGSROMAN: PECULIARITIES OF THE GENRE MODEL

Abstract

Considering Dostoevsky’s novel “The Adolescent” in the context of the traditional Bildungsroman
the author finds out the experimental method of depicting the consciousness of the
young character, the use of new artistic means in the traditional system of poetic genre. The author
states that the general principle of personality change in the traditional Bildungsroman is dialectical,
while in “The Adolescent” the author finds out a fundamentally different way of depicting
the evolution of consciousness – catastrophic; the change of the character in Dostoevsky’s novel
outlives a crisis, a jump, a turning point, the transformation is accomplished through the catastrophe.
The author marks the special attention of the writer to the most exciting moment – that instant
of transition which is the primary element of the process of consciousness movement. This observation
allows the author to single out a special – “centered” – system of artistic means: unusual
concentration of experiences (in one moment) transmitted by means of chronotope; forms of psychological
analysis capable of detecting a moment of transition (memories – the projection into
the past of the character, confessions transmitting the result of the previous experience and the
emergence of the coming decision, streams of consciousness – transitions from one thought (feeling)
to another). The author concludes that the penultimate novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky continues the
tradition of Bildungsroman being the next step of its development – revealing a new concept
of catastrophic formation of the person.