Orthodox realism in the works by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The article aims to define the artistic method of F. M. Dostoevsky in the light of new ideas about the ideological content and poetics of the writer’s works. As is known, Dostoevsky worked in the genre of realism, he called himself a realist, and it is easy to notice the features of social, psychological, philosophical, and even political realism in his writings. At the same time, there was always something else in them, something more significant and adding unique originality to the writer’s works. A number of modern researchers (I. B. Avanesyan, A. A. Alekseev, V. A. Voropaev, M. M. Dunaev, V. N. Zakharov, Yu. V. Lebedev, A. M. Lyubomudrov, L. I. Saraskina, K. A. Stepanyan, A. N. Uzhankov, and others) consider this phenomenon to be grounded in the cultural European Christian tradition. The results of the study of Dostoevsky’s works by means of historical-cultural and comparative-historical methods generally confirm this assumption, but it needs significant clarification. Using the comparative typological method, the author of the article explores various points of view on Dostoevsky’s poetics, systematizes the results obtained on the basis of an original methodological approach, and comes to the conclusion that the most precise term conveying the features of the writer’s artistic method is ‘Orthodox realism’. It is known that Dostoevsky called his method ‘complete realism’, ‘realism in the highest sense’, absolutely rejecting the label of a writer-psychologist. This circumstance has repeatedly attracted the attention of researchers. While studying various concepts and analyzing Dostoevsky’s own views on the goals and objectives of artistic creativity, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that ‘realism in the highest sense’ is based on the principle of transforming the Orthodox view of the world into artistic imagery - ‘Orthodox realism’. It has been the main principle of Russian literature since its appearance, having countless embodiments in the works of Russian writers. Dostoevsky creatively rethought the experience of European and Russian Christian literature and raised the method of Orthodox realism to an unattainable height.