The paradigm of post-modernism in F. Dostoevsky’s novel "Demons"

The author of this article analyzes the construction of the paradigm of Post- Modernism based on F. Dostoevsky’s novel Demons. Post-Modernism is defined here as the state of the demonization of man and society from the point of view of traditionally and religiously minded thinkers such as A. Dugin and R. Guénon. Te plot of Demons is centered around an atempt to show the postmodern state of the Russian intelligentsia, which is becoming a vessel for demons because of its fascination with atheistic and amoral socialism. In Demons, Dostoevsky is able to show how the intelligentsia of the Post-Petrine era has become separated from its metaphysical roots and how it, in order to be healed, must return to Christ. The separation of the intelligentsia from its roots is revealed both in its separation from Christ, on the one hand, and from its nation, on the other. It is thus of no surprise that in the censored chapter, Tikhon wishes for Stavrogin to atone for his crime by accepting the struggle of monasticism in secret. A return to one’s national roots is possible only through a return to Christ. Demonic possession as a representative symbol of the era of Post-Modernism is described by the author, however, without any agony of despair since Christ in Dostoevsky’s novels is always next to the sinner and awaits the sinner’s conversion with a stretched out salvific right hand. Tus, a characteristic feature of Dostoevsky’s demonology is that despite the terror of demonic possession of the human world and the demonic influence on people, the world itself does not become a demonic structure and retains room for theodicy and anthropodicy. God’s Word can still be heard in all of the novels of Dostoevsky’s “Greatest Five”, even in Demons. Te fact that Stepan T. Verkhovensky was able to respond to it testifies to the sotereological end of this narrative.