Topos Manor Paradise in the Novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Village Of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants"

Abstract

At first glance, the topos in the novel is painted in idyllic tones and represents a picture of the manor paradise. The poetics of the estate text presupposed a family idyll in the bosom of nature, the sentimentality of relations, sublime feelings, the cult of enlightenment, the worship of the elegant, aesthetic enlightenment of being. The main character, Colonel Rostanev, is "pure as a child, presuming all people to be angels", "beautiful by nature", "intelligent in heart"; his beloved Nastenka is "an angel, not a man". However, the arcade idyll, the gracious healing "paradisiacal" locus of a noble estate, first turns into a "Noah's ark", a "madhouse", a "bedlam," and then a hell by virtue of the despotism of the adoptive father, Foma Opiskin. This "pljugovenky <...> little man," a failed writer, stung by the "snake of literary vanity," "the accursed Foma" becomes the source of all evil. The topography of the paradise in the novel is constantly satirically turned over, the motives of temptation, fall, redemption, narratives of preaching and humility are ironically reduced. Even the universal happiness of the "returned paradise", when Foma Fomich allows the colonel to marry Nastenka, is created under the influence of alcoholic intoxication, the survivor in a benevolent mood turns into a "genius of goodness".