Holy fools in F. M. Dostoevsky's novels

Literary scholars have developed an ambiguous attitude to the images of holy fools depicted in Dostoevsky’s novels. The article deals with several traditions (or rather several planes, levels of perception of holy foolishness as a phenomenon) that were embodied in these images by the writer. The concepts of holy foolishness proposed in Dostoevsky studies mainly deal with the phenomenon within a particular tradition of its perception. The author departs from these concepts and suggests their own vision. According to the author, F. M. Dostoevsky creates a unique image of the holy fool to which Old Russian, religious or folk canons of understanding of the holy foolishness are not applicable. The images of holy fools in the writer’s novels are defined as poliobrazy (“polyimages”) at both semantic and structural levels; each image embodies traditions of different cultures. Artistic interpretation of the images determines largely the understanding of the works structure (their plot lines and contexture), poetics, the role and significance of other characters in the whole set of characters and images, the concept of the work, as well as better understanding of the phenomenon of holy foolishness as such.