More on the poetics of paradox: baron Brambeus as a “harbinger of Dostoevsky”

The article studies a historical course of the poetics of paradox (paràdoxos, Greek - strange, unexpected), i. e. such an opinion, speculation or sentence that contradicts not only a conventional image but a common sense too. V. N. Zakharov has educed the limits and forms of the paradox manifestation in the publicistic texts of F. M. Dostoevsky. The author of the article shows that Dostoevsky, as a paradoxographer, had an undeniable precursor O. I. Senkovsky, the author of “The Pages of Baron Brambeus” (1856-1858). Considering a general idea of paradox as an ultra usual, ultra probable and at the same time odd, amazing, excellent phenomenon Baron Brambeus apparently approaches the poetics of “A Writer’s Diary”.