The concept of catharsis in Fyodor Dostoevsky's works: from the newspaper polemics of 1873

The question of catharsis was first brought up by Aristotle in his Poetics. Aristotle was interpreting catharsis rather broadly. For him it could be tragic or musical, but it always meant purification or purgation as a dialogue between a poet and a spectator, which he saw as one of the aims of art. In Dostoevsky's thesaurus there is no such category as catharsis, but there is this word's equivalent in the Russian language: "ochishchenie" (which can be translated as "purification"). Purification through suffering is one of the key ideas of Dostoevsky's works. He expressed this idea in his prose beginning with Notes from the House of the Dead, but it was first stated directly in the third chapter (entitled Environment) of A Writer's Diary of 1873. Dostoevsky contrasted the socialist doctrine of "environment" with the Christian idea of personal responsibility for our own and other people's actions. Liberal journalists did not accept Dostoevsky's idea of "purification through suffering" and ridiculed him (e.g., L. K. Paniutin, A. G. Kovner, V. P. Burenin, A.S. Suvorin). Instead of understanding and justifiable dispute, Dostoevsky faced malediction and rudeness. Conservative critics, on the other hand, overlooked this episode of A Writer's Diary. This idea started to be appreciated only in the 20th century, long after the writer's death, and was developed in the works of S. Zweig, N. Berdyaev and others. Notwithstanding the fact that contemporary critics question the presence of catharsis in Dostoevsky's prose, one should admit that it is one of the categories of his poetics. The purification through suffering is the essence of the aesthetic empathy between the author and his reader and implies the meaning of his creative works.