ON THE QUESTION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL PROTOTYPE OF THE PROTAGONIST OF A. M. GORKY'S LAST NOVEL "THE LIFE OF KLIM SAMGIN"

Abstract

The author of the article puts forward a hypothesis according to which the central character of F. M. Dostoevsky's work «Notes from the Underground» is a literary prototype of the main character of the novel by A. M. Gorky «The Life of Klim Samgin». According to the researcher, Russian writers analyze in their works a personality with a schizoid-polyphonic type of character accentuation, which A. Lowen considered in his book «Betrayal of the Body». In our opinion, there are extremely many psychological features in common between the "underground man" and Klim Samgin: the presence of schizoid alienation syndrome from society (a kind of «sociophobic syndrome») in the characters, the presence of a vividly accented «polyphonic character» uniting an inferiority complex and megalomania in their «split self» (R. Lang) sadistic and masochistic traits of their personality. In addition, the common specific «psychological facets» of Klim and the «underground master» are «emotional coldness» (E. Kretschmer) of the heroes, their «petrified insensitivity» towards other personalities. The author of the article analyzes the artistic and psychological features of the characters of F. M. Dostoevsky and A. M. Gorky, expressed in their «autistic dreaminess» as a kind of «escape from reality», the inability of the characters to get out of the schizoid isolation of their «existential Hamletism». A. M. Gorky not only borrows the model of the schizoid personality, which is so vividly described in «Notes from the Underground», but also adopts the methodological aspects of the author's position in relation to his hero, implemented by F. M. Dostoevsky. Consciously avoiding the ethical assessment of Samgin's thoughts and actions, producing an ambivalent dialogue of consciousnesses (M. M. Bakhtin) carried out inside and outside his character.