Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics

Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (1895-1975) - philosopher, literary scholar, theorist of European culture and art. Author of concepts such as "polyphony", "carnivalesque culture", "chronotope", "carnivalization", "spiritual top" and "corporeal bottom".

The book "Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics" was first published in 1963. Before Bakhtin, researchers mainly focused on the ideological aspect of Dostoevsky's work, but Bakhtin saw in Fyodor Mikhailovich an artist, not a philosopher or publicist, and vividly demonstrated how Dostoevsky created a completely new type of artistic thinking. To describe this unique novelistic style, Bakhtin introduced the term polyphonic, which is now used worldwide.

The polyphonic type of artistic expression exists not only in Dostoevsky's novels, but also relates to the fundamental principles of pan-European aesthetics. Fyodor Mikhailovich created a new artistic model of the world, in which the previous artistic form underwent radical changes. In the book, through theoretical and literary analysis, Bakhtin revealed this fundamental innovation of Dostoevsky.

The book contains an interview with Mikhail Bakhtin by the editorial staff of the "New World" magazine about the polyphony of Fyodor Mikhailovich's novels.