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UMI Text Unity and Cohesion of Dostoevshy' s Writer's Diary by Peter Sekirin A PhD Thesis Graduate Department of Slavic University of Toronto 1999 National Library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Weilingîcm OtiawaON KlAON4 OaawaON KlAW Canada CaMda The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/£h, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fonnat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Dissertation Abstract Text Unity and Cohesion of Dostoevsky's A Writer's Diary by Peter Sekinn This is the first rnonographic study of Dostoevsky's Writer's Diary. Fyodor Dostoevsky dedicated ten years of his life to the Diary, which is about 1,200 pages long, and is one of his most important works. The key problem of its study is the problem of textual unity and cohesion. The writer repeatedly referred to this work as a single text and a unit.;but at the same time the Diary consists of chapters, sections and short stories which are different in style, message and form. In the thesis, 1 make an attempt to solve this problern and to probe that the~iayis a cohesive text, including its concept (Chapter One), references (Chapter Two), structure (Chapter Three) and semantics (Chapter Four). The first chapter is dedicated to the history of the Diary's creation and major concepts of its organization including early approaches to its general concept; thee treatment of this work as a unity; history of Dostoevsky's taking the work at The Citizen; and the Diary after 1875. The second chapter investigates reIatedness of reference, including time, space, and narration type. The th ird chapter presents the analysis of structural coherence, in particular, inter-textual and extra-textual references and links. The fourth chapter proves the unity ofjoumalism, fact and fiction in A Writer's Diary by F. Dostoevsky. In the conclusions I argue that Dostoevsky developed in his Diary a genuinely new form in Russian literature which may be identified as fictional journalism. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION Page CHAPTER 1. CONCEPTUAL COHESION. A HISTORY OF THE DIARY'S 3 CREATION AND MAJOR CONCEPTS OF iTS TEXTUAL ORGANIZATION. 2 1 1.1. Dostoevsky's Work as a Journalis: before the Diary. 21 1.2. Early Approaches to the General Concept of the Diary. 28 1.3. Dostoevsky's Editorship of The Citizen and his Relationship with the 17 Publisher, Prince Meshchersky. 1.4. Several Versions of Dostoevsky's Resignation as Editor of -The Citizen. 7 -5. The Diary After 1875. Some ïntroductory Remarks About the Genre. CHAPTER 2- REFERENTIAL COHESION - TIME, SPACE AND NARRATION TYPE 2.1. The Concept of Time in A Writer's Diary. 2.2. Time in "The Old People." 2.3. Time as a Category of Cohesion in A Wnter's Diary: Periods of Time and Sequences of Actions; Continuous Time Versus a Single Point in Time; Perfective Versus Non-Perfective Action; Modifiers of Time in the Past, Present and Future; Several Actions Following one Another. 2.4. Space and Cohesion of A Writer's Diary Including Russia (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Russian provincial towns, Russia as a nation); Western Europe; Russia and the Eastern Question Including Distant Locations: USA, China, and Asia. 2.5. Types of Narration as a Factor of Cohesion. CHAPTER 3. STRUCTURAL COHESION. 3.1. Inter-Textual References: Frames in A Wnter's Diary: Linear - Chain Frame as Linear Cohesion; and General Frame as Overall Cohesion. 3.2. Extra-Textual References to Other Literary Artists, Critics and Other Litcrnry Works: Dostoevsky as a Literary Critic: Dostoevsky's Criticism about George Sand; .Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy; Smoke by Turgenev. CHAPTER 4. INTELLECTUAL COHESION. THE UNITY OF JOURNALISM, FACT AW FICTION IN A WRITER'S DMYBY F. DOSTOEVSKY. 4.1. The Topic of Children in A Wnter's Diary. 4.2. The Power of Fictional Elements Used in the Journalistic Material. 4.3. The Factual Background of Fiction in the Diaxy. COh~CLUSIONS ADDENDUM. Quotations in the Original Russian. BIBLIOGRAPHY Introduction. In the following introduction 1 will briefly comment on the problem of treatment of -4 Writer's Diary as a single text and summanse what has been done in the theory of text coherence; outline what has not been done and how my work will contribute to the existing theory; choose a working definition of text cohesion and expand this definition with my own; suggest a new approach combining the achievements of four major studies in this field; and, finally, apply this theory to the study of cohesion of A Writer's Diq, and outline the major issues of the foiir major cllapiers of the dissertation. 1. The Problem of A Writer 's Diam as a Sinde Text. Brief Review of Maior Works on Text Cohesion. The Working Definitions of Cohesion and the Structure of the Dissertation. A Writer's Diary is one of Dostoevsky's major works and the key problem of its study is the problern of its unity and cohesion. The \Miter repeatedly referred to this work as a single text (see below in this chapter) and a unity, but at the same time the Diary consists of chapters, sections and short stones which are different in style, message and forrn. III the following thesis, 1 am going to attcmpt to solve this problem and to prove tliat the Diary is a cohesive text, including its concept (chapter l), references (chapter 2), structure (chapter 3) and semantics (chapter 4). The problem of text cohesion has attracted the attention of numerous scholars during the last decades. The notion of a cohesive text was at the centre of the linguistic and literary discussions in textual studies throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s. Dunng this tinie. two basic approaches to the problem of text cohesion were developed in the critical literatiire. Several prominent scholars treat cohesion as one of the most important textual characteristics, that which defines and creates textual unity (Gleitman 1965, Lakoff 197 1, Lang 1976, and van Dijk 1977); another group of researchers (Lotman 1973, Greims 1 975, Pope 1995) argue that cohesion is no more important than other parameters of the tcxt including frame, plot developrnent, narrative voice, narrative types, points of view of the author, reference patterns, etc. In the foIlowing study, a third, alternative point of view is developed, which is a compromise between the two above-mentioned approaches: the notion of cohesion reinains the key charactenstic of a literary text; at the same time, cohesion is exarnined in the contest of other key text parameters, namely narration type, point of view, space-time relationships, inter- and extra-textual links and semantic connections. A working definition of text cohesion which 1 accept in this dissertation is that made by N. Enkquist who stressed that "in semantic terms one could suggest that a text is understood to be coherent if its sentences confonn to the picture of a single possible world in the experience or imagination of the receiver" (Enkvist 1977: 126). Thus, one of the major notions of discourse used here is "a single possible world" of a litenry text. As a result, it is this single world as manifested in the forma1 and semantic stmctures which will be investigated below. The notion of the cohesion of a literary text was onginally developed in the works of the British linguists, Leech and Short (1971). Their starting point was to study the forma1 indicators of cohesion of single phrases, sentences and paragraphs. The nest step was more exciting, and, I would Say, revolutionary. Leech and Short (1 97 1 : 1 1-57) developed a system of fonnal parameters for the coliesion of a literq text: it included elernents of structural, referential and semantic cohesion. I have adapted their classification, using their terms "stmcturaI cohesion" and "referential cohesion," and have added hvo terrns of my own, "conceptual cohesion," and ''inteIIectua1 cohesion," because these hvo new terms can also be used to describe the cohesion of the Diary, that is, the unity of its conception and the unity between facts and fiction. The problem of the unity and cohesion of A Writer's Diar). is the key issue in al1 the major studirs dedicated to this work. The Diarys diversity of genres, topics, issues, types of narration, stylistic and Iiterary devices implies that it (fiorn a purely formal point of view) rnay be described as an anthology of unconnected stories and articles. Hoivever, Dostoevsky always treated the Diary as one work, and repeatedly referred to it as a single creation ("sochinenie"). Therefore, 1 consider the issue of the Diary S cohesion and unity as the major question addressed by my dissertation, and attempt to prove in the four major chapters of this dissertation (dealing with the Diary's conceptual, structural, referential, and intellectual cohesion) that the Diary is a unified work on al1 levels.

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