Article

Name: «The world with God» and «the world without God»: religious and atheistic types of spirituality in an existential axiology of the novel of F.M. Dostoyevsky «Demons»

Authors: Koshechko Anastasia Nikolaevna

Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk, Russian Federation; Tomsk State University, Tomsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The paper is devoted to the research into the axiology of existential consciousness in the novel «Demons» by F. M. Dostoyevsky which realizes itself in the text through the situation of choosing a vector of spiritual development of personality: «the world with God» or «the world without God». The hero’s word becomes a way of implementing of his own existence. Dostoyevsky’s heroes find their personal positions in situations of the ideological disputes organizing the semantic field of the work. In his novels the writer gives special attention to the study of atheism as a special type of spirituality based on the belief in the nonexistence of God and on the idea of human divinity. Dostoyevsky investigates the system of values of the atheistic and the religious type of spirituality as an indicator of the level of the spiritual organization of personality. An indicative example illustrating our theoretical reasonings is one of Stavrogin and Shatov’s central dialogues in the novel «Demons». Through Shatov’s retorts Dostoyevsky pronounces his own vision of different ways of self-realization of the personality in life: through «the world with God» or «the world without God». This episode is marked by «creed» of Dostoyevsky himself, who entrusted it to Another (in this case – to the novel characters) as an experiment with the purpose to see and understand himself through the consciousness of his characters, through the logic of the art world.

Keywords: existential consciousness, axiology, spirituality, orthodoxy, «frontier situation», post-reform epoch, reflection, dialogue, character, «demons»

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