The Religious Subtext in Problems of Dostoevsky’s Creation: from the Union of All Mankind to Polyphony

Abstract

Mikhail Bakhtin's book Problems of Dostoevsky's Creation, published in 1929 and republished in 1963 with considerable changes under the title Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics, presents, as an artistic innovation brought by the Russian classic, polyphony – a term borrowed from the musical sphere. Alongside dialogism and carnivalization, it is one of Bakhtin's most remembered concepts, when it comes to his theoretical legacy. By transferring it to the field of literary studies, Bakhtin gives it a broader philosophical-aesthetic sense. The Bakhtinian discovery regarding Dostoevsky's work appeared as a result of a comprehensive study of the bibliography on the Russian writer, but it also had the Russian philosophical thought among its origins. However, already in the 1920s, certain references could not be made openly. The danger of repression was real: Bakhtin's participation in the philosophical-religious group Voskresenie led to his arrest in 1928, just when Problems of Dostoevsky's Creation was in preparation. Therefore, we assume that Bakhtin's book has explicit references, as is the case of Vyacheslav Ivanov, Dmitri Merezhkovsky, Akim Volynsky, Vasily Rozanov, Lev Shestov, directly cited, and hidden references, such as, for example, Vladimir Solovyov and Nikolay Berdyaev.