“Notes from Underground” as an indicator of modern anthropological situation

Abstract

The subject of attention in this article is the situation of a modern person, considered in the light of F.M. Dostoevsky’s story «Notes from Underground», which is regarded as an original empirical basis for understanding the anthropological content of the twentieth century. This approach presupposes focusing on obsessive-modern problems, but an attempt to grasp the origins leads to reading the classical texts of the past and actualizing the question of the nature of art: when an artist sees what is invisible to the ordinary eye, does he diagnose reality or by naming it establishe reality for something that would not have acquired vitality without it? The idea of ​​the ontological significance of the spoken word, which imposes responsibility on the author, is substantiated, but the nature and measure of this responsibility are not revealed by a straightforward comparison with the author himself, to which an alarmed but rational judgment of common sense is usually inclined. The simplification of modern interpretations of the ideas of Dostoevsky’s text is noted, this is explained by the fact that his novels are mainly understood straightforwardly and unambiguously, which results in didactic-moralizing re-accentuation of his works. As to “Notes from Underground”, this novel is often characterized as criticism of the “dark” side in man, his tendency to destruction, boundless egoism and terrible amoralism caused by having no God in his soul. However, we should try to return criticism to its deeper and true meaning – unbiased analysis, distinction, rather than denunciation and disclosure. And then we can see in the story the revelation of secular consciousness, which has no power or possibilities to exceed the determinants and regulatives of the otherworldly, horizonal world.