Philosophy and the Drama of Life: A Theater Experience of Understanding F.M. Dostoevsky
Authors: Zlotnikova Tatiana S. 
Published: July 2021

The article aims at a multidimensional discussion of the little-explored topic of the dramatic content of the philosophical problems in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky (1821—1881). There is proved that it was this feature of creativity that made the writer, with his philosophy of life and sharp, dramatically effective plot and psychological collisions, the most desirable and very productive author for the Russian theater art.

Polyphony, dialogism, combined with the features of the tragic genre, are the basis for numerous theatrical embodiments of novels and novellas by F.M. Dostoevsky. The intensity of the action in his works gave rise to the expressions “novel-drama” or “drama in a novel”, “novel-tragedy”, and in theatrical practice it created the ground for the transformation of moral and philosophical problems into active stage action.

The article reveals the context of F.M. Dostoevsky’s works — the time and conditions for the emergence of novels and novellas, the problem field that united and separated him from the works of his predecessors and contemporaries, which is done on the basis of a brief description of several aspects of the philosophical-aesthetic and socio-moral systems. In this context, according to our concept, a special place is occupied by the idea that life in Russia is absurd and ridiculous, and the reflection of the absurd is the most important artistic paradigm.

The article proves that the analyzed philosophy of F.M. Dostoevsky’s life received polar genre embodiments in the theater. Thus, the dramatic and melodramatic beginning was characteristic of the performances that had in their center the so-called little man. The article presents an understanding of the most remarkable performances of the second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century: “The Idiot” by G. Tovstonogov, with a new trend of searching for a “positively beautiful” person, which had a significant impact on many theatrical experiences in Russia; “The Petersburg Dreams” by Yu. Zavadsky, as a unique experience for Soviet art of creating a tragic work in full accordance with the aesthetic characteristics of this genre; “And I Will Go, and I Will Go” by V. Fokin, as the last emotional outburst of the young generation of Soviet creators who thought in the moral and psychological parameters of F.M. Dostoevsky’s characters; “The Karamazovs” by K. Bogomolov — a postmodern experience of an absurdist reading of the multifaceted text of the classic.

In the works of the writer and their theatrical embodiment, the article notes the signs of a carnival worldview, a combination of grotesque and subtle psychologism in the stage versions of F.M. Dostoevsky (in particular, when working with ironic and satirical texts, “Uncle’s Dream” and especially “The Village of Stepanchikovo”, where sympathy and negative connotations are integrated into a single artistic space). The article correlates the writer’s works existential interpretations by theatrical creators of the 20th and early 21st centuries with socially significant problems, life choices, and dramatic conflicts that characterize Dostoevsky’s philosophy.