The article analyzes the poetics of F.M. Dostoevsky and A. Kondratiev, a symbolist writer of the early 20th century. The object of the research is the two works “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” by Dostoevsky and the novel “Dreams” by Kondratiev. A great deal of attention is paid to dream as a literary device and the spatial movements of heroes who receive sacred knowledge through sleep and are attached to metaphysical reality. Both writers in the work of reality is closely connected with the space, and this determines the nature of spatial models in poetics. Sleep is equal to temporary death and allows the main characters to go beyond the ordinary, profane. The article used the typological method and folklore commenting. It draws parallels with Eastern philosophy, where there is a unity of man and nature, man and the cosmos.El artículo analiza las poéticas de F.M. Dostoievski y A. Kondratiev, un escritor simbolista de principios del siglo XX. El objeto de la investigación son los dos trabajos "El sueño de un hombre ridículo" de Dostoievski y la novela "Sueños" de Kondratiev. Se presta mucha atención al sueño como un dispositivo literario y los movimientos espaciales de los héroes que reciben conocimiento sagrado a través del sueño y están apegados a la realidad metafísica. Ambos escritores en el trabajo de la realidad están estrechamente relacionados con el espacio, y esto determina la naturaleza de los modelos espaciales en la poética. Dormir es igual a la muerte temporal y permite que los personajes principales vayan más allá de lo ordinario, lo profano. El artículo utiliza el método tipológico y el comentario folclórico. Traza paralelos con la filosofía oriental, donde hay una unidad de hombre y naturaleza, hombre y cosmo

Dudareva, Marianna A.

Nikitina, Vlada V.

English

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Artículo de investigación 
DREAM IN THE POETICS OF F.M. DOSTOEVSKY AND A.A. 
KONDRATIEV 
 
SUEÑO EN LA POÉTICA DE F.M. DOSTOEVSKY Y A.A. KONDRATIEV 
 
 
Recibido: 10 de febrero de 2019. Aceptado: 12 de marzo de 2019 
 
 Written by: 
Marianna A. Dudareva1  
Vlada V. Nikitina2 
 
The publication has been prepared with the support of the “RUDN University Program 5-100” 
 
Abstract 
 
The article analyzes the poetics of F.M. 
Dostoevsky and A. Kondratiev, a symbolist 
writer of the early 20th century. The object of the 
research is the two works “The Dream of a 
Ridiculous Man” by Dostoevsky and the novel 
“Dreams” by Kondratiev. A great deal of 
attention is paid to dream as a literary device and 
the spatial movements of heroes who receive 
sacred knowledge through sleep and are attached 
to metaphysical reality. Both writers in the work 
of reality is closely connected with the space, and 
this determines the nature of spatial models in 
poetics. Sleep is equal to temporary death and 
allows the main characters to go beyond the 
ordinary, profane. The article used the 
typological method and folklore commenting. It 
draws parallels with Eastern philosophy, where 
there is a unity of man and nature, man and the 
cosmos.  
  
Keywords: Dostoevsky, dream, space, poetics, 
Kondratiev, symbol. 
 
 
  Resumen  
 
El artículo analiza las poéticas de F.M. 
Dostoievski y A. Kondratiev, un escritor 
simbolista de principios del siglo XX. El objeto 
de la investigación son los dos trabajos "El sueño 
de un hombre ridículo" de Dostoievski y la 
novela "Sueños" de Kondratiev. Se presta mucha 
atención al sueño como un dispositivo literario y 
los movimientos espaciales de los héroes que 
reciben conocimiento sagrado a través del sueño 
y están apegados a la realidad metafísica. Ambos 
escritores en el trabajo de la realidad están 
estrechamente relacionados con el espacio, y esto 
determina la naturaleza de los modelos 
espaciales en la poética. Dormir es igual a la 
muerte temporal y permite que los personajes 
principales vayan más allá de lo ordinario, lo 
profano. El artículo utiliza el método tipológico 
y el comentario folclórico. Traza paralelos con la 
filosofía oriental, donde hay una unidad de 
hombre y naturaleza, hombre y cosmos. 
 
Palabras claves: Dostoievski, sueño, espacio, 
poética, Kondratiev, símbolo. 
Introduction 
 
 
René Guénon, an eminent French philosopher of 
the 20th century, developed the problem of 
                                                 
1 PhD in Philology Associate professor of the Russian Language Department No. 2 
Faculty of Russian Language and General Education Disciplines Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 
start@rudn.ru, pomortseva-nv@rudn.ru 
2 PhD in Philology Associate Professor of the Russian Language Department No. 2 
Faculty of the Russian Language and General Education Disciplines Peoples' Friendship University of Russia 
 
https://elibrary.ru/author_items.asp?authorid=664508 
 
 
“sacral and traditional” science in his writings 
and came to the conclusion that “sacral science” 
Dudareva, M.A., Nikitina, V.V. /Vol. 8 Núm. 19: 6- 9/ Marzo - abril 2019 
 
         Vol. 8 Núm. 19 /Marzo - abril 2019 
 
 
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7 
proceeds from intellectual intuition (Guenon, 
2008). The profane and the sacred form two sides 
of life; everything is divided into these 
components. Another French philosopher, 
cultural scientist and ethnographer Mircea Eliade 
(“The Sacred and the Profane”) also wrote about 
this (Eliade, 1994). The artist of the word to 
convey the metaphysical secret component of a 
person’s life often refers to the literary dream. 
 
In world culture, folklore and literature, sleep is 
often equated with temporary death. Literary 
scholars view the dream as a second world, as an 
event that should happen or has already happened 
(recall the first dream of Raskolnikov by F.M. 
Dostoevsky), and finally, as divine providence, 
tardema dream (Ermilova, 2004). Thus, sleep is 
another world. However, it is necessary to 
distinguish between a dream as a profane, 
mundane phenomenon occurring with each one, 
and a spatial displacement in which the hero is 
aware of and controls his behavior. In Eastern 
spiritual esoteric practices, this phenomenon is 
called astral projection. This term we will use 
later in the article. The article does not consider 
the orientalism of Dostoevsky or Kondratiev, 
although such works have appeared on 
Dostoevsky (Alekseev, 2016), but some 
typologies about Eastern culture and literature. 
 
Materials and methods 
 
From this perspective, we consider the "Dream 
of a ridiculous person" by F.M. Dostoevsky and 
the novel "Dreams" by A. Kondratiev (there is 
not a lot of research about the poet of the 
symbolism era, so little attention was paid to this 
story). It is necessary to turn to the features of 
spatial models and their interaction, since the 
dream embodies another reality and the hero 
takes a trip to the next world. In addition, 
according to the precise remark of M.M. Bakhtin, 
the laws of space are more important than time 
for the poetics of Dostoevsky: the writer "thought 
his world primarily in space and not in time" 
(Bakhtin, 1972). 
 
We analyze the story of Dostoevsky and the story 
of Kondratiev from the point of view of the 
mythology of initiations, since in both works 
there is a “spatial” movement of the hero, the 
features of which have already been mentioned 
above. The methodology of our research involves 
the use of historical-functional, historical-
genetic, system-typological methods of analysis 
and application of the experience of folkloristic 
commenting on the text. 
 
First, consider the work of FM. Dostoevsky. 
From the standpoint of researchers, the most 
important thing in the story is the image of a girl 
who was met by the “Ridiculous Man”, so we 
will start the analysis of the nominal with him. 
“A girl is a sign of destiny or Destiny itself, 
calling to believe in it” (Popov, 2000), as noted 
by D.L. Popov. A girl is a creature that represents 
a higher beginning (for now, let's put it this way). 
In addition, according to the world cultural 
folklore ideas, the status of the child is 
borderline, transitional. However, the researcher 
says that the girl, whom the hero refused to help, 
was sent to him to believe. However, is it? Is this 
the function of this image? 
 
A girl is a kind of check on the hero's initiatic 
path. Will the hero come to the end or will such 
a feeling as pity, compassion, even a high feeling, 
stop him? Zero is the absolute to which the hero 
goes [4: 425], but the path is difficult because the 
earthly feelings hold the person: “I can suffer, get 
angry and feel shame for my actions” (425). Then 
the natural question arises: Are these earthly 
feelings? Yes, since they slow down the progress 
of a person forward, they “ground”. There is no 
good, no evil, no feelings arising from them in 
the cosmoscope; in the universe everything is 
one, all the same. The expression all the same, 
which the “ridiculous person” so often repeats, 
bears in the text not the direct character of 
indifference, but the character of unity, equality 
before being, of the Universe. It is semantically 
significant and is in many respects the key for the 
disclosure of the image. The hero feels this 
subtly: “<...> and no matter how many there are, 
I always don't care” (424). He feels detached 
from this world, but not detached and lonely, he 
just falls into the “high” cosmos, calling it 
ridiculous: “<...> and I know the truth. Oh, how 
hard it is for one to know the truth! Nevertheless, 
they will not understand this. No, they will not 
understand” (420). The hero is already on the 
right path, as he is focused and realized: “It can 
even be said that the world is now, as it were, 
made one for me ...” (426). The hero himself does 
not reveal himself to the end, and to the reader, 
since he calls all his thoughts nonsense: "I sit and 
do not even think, and so, some thoughts wander, 
and I let them free" (424). Although we see that, 
he reflects all the time about life, death, the 
world, about himself. This is not “chaos” or 
“nonsense” on a positivist level - the hero is 
cunning: “... I wrapped all these new questions, 
crowded one after another, completely even in 
the other direction and invented something very 
new” (426). However, all the time he returns to 
the earth, it attracts him: “<...> I would continue 
to maintain consciousness of what I did on 
  
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another planet <...> would I care or not?” (426). 
In a dream, you can jump "through space and 
time" (427), choosing what is necessary for 
yourself: "one is presented with terrifying clarity, 
with the smallest details, and you jump over the 
other ..." (426 - 427). For example, in Eastern 
philosophy, the path of Zen involves “jumping 
over” everything except for yourself - at a certain 
stage, but at the end - to dissolve in the world, at 
a certain space-time point. In order to know the 
truth, a person must first “kill” the mind, since 
the mind “simply leads a plant life. He has no 
depth, no peak of experiences” [8: 238]. In 
addition, for example, indifference to everything 
external was a sign of Buddha when he returned 
already enlightened to the palace (he spoke of the 
ten shackles of man — one of which was “the 
desire for pleasure and tranquility” [9: 188]), and 
Dostoevsky’s hero experiences this indifference 
partially - not always, but he still overcomes his 
initiatory path. 
  
“In a dream <...> you never feel pain” (427), that 
is, everything that happens in a dream is 
experienced by the soul of the hero. “Dreams are 
right on the surface of the mind” in Zen, in the 
East [Osho, p. 238]. The main thing is to stay 
“here and now” - to accept reality: “I was lying 
and, strangely, I did not wait for anything, 
accepting without a dispute that there was 
nothing for the dead” (428). An “astral 
projection” takes place with this hero, he begins 
to feel movement in his sleep, he sleeps and does 
not sleep at the same time: “Deep indignation 
suddenly caught fire in my heart. And suddenly I 
felt physical pain in my heart” (428). Turning to 
folklore, where reality and irreality interact, we 
see that after such a dream (astral projection) the 
hero completely renounces the world: “I didn’t 
ask who was carrying me, about anything, I 
waited and was proud” (429), gains a path: "<...> 
our path has an unknown and mysterious goal, 
which concerns me alone." (430). However, even 
in the afterlife, he cannot say goodbye to the 
"earthly", so he does not leave the circle of 
rebirths (for example, in Indian philosophy this 
is expressed by the sign of the wheel of Samsara) 
- the creature speeds it to the ground, to another 
Earth. The hero begins to grow, as he acquires 
hiss space, the chronotope of the hero proper. 
The color of the earth has a special semantics in 
this ritual context, it has an emerald color, 
“affectionate emerald sea" (431). Thus, emerald 
"symbolizes cosmic energy, inner strength and 
peace of mind” in the East (Vayo, 2003). 
 
 
 
 
Results 
 
Death in Eastern philosophy does not bring 
bitterness and tears. As a typology, it is 
appropriate to refer to the Zen parable "Time to 
die", which tells about the master and his student, 
who broke the precious, rare bowl of the teacher 
with the words: "It's time to die for your cup" 
(Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, 1992). Also to the Indian 
Jataka “On snake bite”, in which relatives do not 
mourn the death of their son, but give praise to 
the gods for his rebirth: 
 
As the snake replaces the skin, 
Man replaces the body 
When life is fulfilled, 
And leaves without looking. 
The body burns at the stake 
And do not heed sobs. 
So why should I afraid? (Jataka, 1989) 
 
In Eastern philosophy, attachment is not 
acceptable; the focus is on the person who has 
abandoned everything: “He [the master's 
disciple] tried his whole life not to become 
attached to anything” (95 - 96). Therefore, the 
followers of the Zen teachings refused 
everything, even the highest as the composition 
of poems: “If I do not give up now, I will become 
a poet, and not a Zen teacher. He never wrote 
poetry again” (96). Dostoevsky’s hero saw just 
such people on another planet, in a different 
space: “They didn’t want anything and were 
calm; they didn’t strive to know life as we strive 
to realize it, because their life was filled” (433). 
In his astral projection, the hero finds himself in 
a sacred time, in front of him hierophany (Eliade, 
1994): “<...> I am convinced that they somehow 
came into contact with the celestial stars, they 
touched the stars not only with thought, but 
somehow (433). The hero is surprised because 
they did not offend such as him (433), but the Zen 
master does not intend to exalt others - his goal 
is to shed his love on all others. So, one teacher, 
seeing a sleeping student, only told him when he 
woke up from the first steps: “I apologize, I 
apologize me ...” (56), and the residents of that 
fairy-tale planet “loved themselves a lot” (433). 
They did not grieve death; they took it with a 
smile: “I did not see grief and tears, there was 
only love multiplied to delight ...” (434). 
Confirmation that this is not a dream, but 
interdimensional movement is that the hero sees 
everything in detail and experiences all physical 
sensations: “<...> you cannot see such details as 
I convey now in a dream” (435). 
 
All this is typologically applicable to Alexander 
Kondratiev’s “Dreams” writer of the beginning 
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of the 20th century. In his work, the reader also 
encounters a model of sleep and the plot unfolds 
on the verge of sleep and reality. However, the 
functions of such spatial movements of the 
characters are still different. Dostoevsky's 
“ridiculous man” only gets on the path of insight, 
but returns, never reaching the end, because he 
was not ready, and Kondratiev’s heroes (Gosh, 
artist, young man) were initially prepared for 
such “dreams” and consciously an experiment, 
knowing that it will be difficult: “Of course, you 
know what risks you are at the same time [6: 
515]. So, Gosh is not in a dream, he is in an 
“astral movement”, perhaps he sees his past 
lives: “Be a deer” <...> After that I was kicked 
out or taken to the park, where I began to 
dutifully graze on bright green grass (513). In 
Kondratiev's poetics, “sacral geography” 
functions, that is, the locus where Gosh falls, 
turns out to be sacred, outgrows from topos to 
topic (we take the term from AM Panchenko), 
cosmic reality. Also, the "emerald land" is sacred 
in Dostoevsky, but even it still does not change 
the hero. Then Gosh comes full sense of "past 
life" through his "dream" - this happens when the 
hero looks in the mirror-shield of the magician’s 
daughter for the second time: "<...> some secret 
power made me look at her sparkling, like a 
mirror, shield” (514). Kondratiev’s hero as well 
as Dostoevsky’s “ridiculous man” does not leave 
the circle of rebirths: “Only the circle remained 
untouched” (539); the female demiurgic 
principle rejects them, so the hero has not yet 
grown over himself, did not pass the initiation. 
All friends from the story are in the same tragic 
situation: “A similar fate befell the dreams of my 
two friends” (539). In this context, the symbol of 
a circle is highly semiotic: a “round table” (509), 
moving in a room of Gosh (509), and a delineated 
circle by the lake. The hero must get out of this 
circle in order to grow above himself and become 
a cultural hero. 
 
Conclusions 
 
In the works of both writers, the image of the 
protagonist is revealed through a dream. Dream 
allows the hero to look at himself from the 
outside and get out of the profane state. The 
ontological plan in the text is created through 
writers referring to a dream model, since the hero 
can move in space, covering great distances and 
discovering other worlds. However, this does not 
manifest a fantastic element, it is rather a 
mythological and folklore, since there is a clash 
of two worlds - in folklore a person through a 
dream, a temporary death, joins sacral 
knowledge. But he must take advantage of them 
correctly and also must not be afraid of the world 
to go through his path of initiation. 
Analysis of dream in these works of Dostoevsky 
and Kondratiev allows to see the features of the 
functioning of spatial models in their poetics. 
 
References 
 
Alekseev, P.V. (2016). East in the creative mind 
of F.M. Dostoevsky period of the Crimean War. 
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