Text unity and cohesion of Dostoevsky's Writer's diary

grantor: University of TorontoThis is the first monographic 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 unity; 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, I make an attempt to solve this problem and to prove that the 'Diary ' is 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 relatedness of reference, including time, space, and narration type. The third chapter presents the analysis of structural coherence, in particular, inter-textual and extra-textual references and links. The fourth chapter proves the unity of journalism, 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.Ph.D