Dostoevsky and World Culture Dostoevsky and World Culture 2619-0311 2712-8512 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2026-3-36-54 Research Article Articles Repetition of the Realities and Concepts of the Author's Book in a Character's Work: A Shift in Perspective and Distortion of Perception (Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot) Kasatkina Tatiana A. fedor@dostmirkult.ru 25 09 2026 1 3 36 54 Dostoevsky The Idiot characters' writings genre classifications of characters' writings characters' philosophical systems and the ways in which they are presented ways of expressing the author's position Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 In Dostoevsky's works, the manner in which a character presents his vision of the principles governing the structure of the world is invariably significant. The external form ofthis presentation–whether it takes place as a general conversation or a solo reading, a discussion of an article written by the character, a quotation from a book published by the character, a retelling of a "poem" composed by the character with the listener asking questions during the retelling, and so forth–makes it possible to discern the author's position toward the principles being expounded. In The Idiot, the first and second volumes of the author's lifetime edition (Parts One and Three of the novel, respectively) begin with the characters' exposition of their principles governing the structure of the world: Prince Myshkin in the first volume and Ippolit in the second. The characters provide answers to the same questions, yet it is not only their answers that differ, but also the manner in which they present them. Myshkin responds to questions spontaneously posed to him by his interlocutors over breakfast and coffee, which in no way diminishes either the level of the conversation or the responsibility of his answers. Ippolit, by contrast, arrives with a finished and carefully wrapped composition bearing a red seal on its wrapper; he reads it without looking up at his listeners, confronting them with a choice: reading or refreshments. These seemingly incidental circumstances surrounding the characters' declarations of their principles governing the structure of the world and the position of the human being within it prove decisive both for the very substance of these principles and for the expression of the author's attitude toward them. The article examines the conclusions that can be drawn from the manner in which the characters articulate their profession de foi.