"Drugorzędna literatura" : Dostojewski według Nabokova

Abstract

The article raises the issue of the evaluation of works by Fiodor Dostojewski by Vladimir Nabokov, who evaluated writings by the author of Idiot as „secondary literature” in Lectures on the Russian literature. The attempts were made to account for such an evaluation and the meaning of the notion was reconstructed, juxtaposed with the notion of highbrow and ingenious‑innovative literature contrasted with Dostojewski’s writings perceived as ideological, devoid of artistic values, the most important for the author of Gift. The attempts were made to combine Nabokov’s evaluations with contemporary conceptions of a division of the literature into highbrow, middle and popular.