The “accelerated world” as a way of removing the “immobility of the gaze”: a few more words about “realism in the highest sense”

Dostoevsky is often accused of an ill-conceived, imperfect method of constructing novels: allegedly the writer sacrifices the artistic dignity of his prose in favor of the dignity of the philosophy. Focusing on the concept of “realism in the highest sense”, the author explores the metaphysical concept of speed in its relation to Dostoevsky’s “polyphonism”. The author shows the culturological prerequisites of this conceptual pair. In addition, by referring to the theoretical developments of G. D. Gachev and M. K. Mamardashvili, the author discovers the grounds for the possibility of comparing the creative method of Dostoevsky and Proust. Both writers work with the concepts of symbol, memory and time, which allow them to violate the traditional integrity of the novel structure in favor of a way of narration that leads to the transformation of the reader himself. It is shown that this violation itself is legitimized by the dialectic of the one and the many, concentrated in the concept of a “moment in time”.