The diaries of A. M. Dostoyevsky: the problem of genre

The article analyzes the key genre characteristics of A. M. Dostoyevsky's diaries: the context, the image type, the stylistic originality. Though the diaries have their own art history, they are also the literary part of the similar memoir document «Memories». The age of the diarist plays the important role in the comprehension process of the diary text functionality. A. M. Dostoyevsky began writing his diaries at the end of his life. Probably the disease of his wife had involved the writing activity. Dostoyevsky made his diary writings in strictly chronological order. The writer just once was to interrupt the chronological order of his writings because of his wife's death. Dostoyevsky hadn't been writing his diaries for almost two years. The first time Dostoyevsky initiated himself into the similar form of diary writing was his regular epistolary correspondence with the sister V. M. Dostoyevskaya. That time the writer had been in St. Petersburg and described his everyday impressions in letters. The topic context of A. M. Dostoyevsky's diaries is domestic one. Besides the domestic topic, art materials of the diaries include a wide range of the historical figures' portraits and the descriptions of the meaningful epochal events. The travel writings and the dates to be comprehended in the spirit of the Christian calendar occupy an important place in A. M. Dostoyevsky's diaries. These art components sacralize the chronotope and the art style of the diaries. The stylistic experiments of the diaries are highly various: dreams, poetic improvisations, official work documents, drawings, plans.