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It argues that sketch “ideograms” carry metaphorical density, functioning as text- and plotforming motifs and discursive signs, while the novel’s discourse also draws on intertextual sources such as Cervantes and Victor Hugo.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & 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Author(s) 2025  \nAbstract  \nDostoevsky’s discourse in The Idiot is aimed—and this is his main artistic task—at developing the artistic language of a previously unknown world, of the singular human experience unfolding within the novel, rather than at conveying a finished, completed plot. The focus of this paper is on the process of constructing this new symbolic language of self-understanding, which can be approached through an analysis of the unique interplay of textuality, visuality and corporeality in this novel and in the genre of the modern novel. This paper shall examine the crucial role played by Dostoevsky’s drawings and calligraphy in the poetics of The Idiot in the context of the genesis of this novel, in order to show that the “ideograms” that appear in sketches and drafts are saturated with metaphorical meaning and thus become text-and plotforming motifs and discursive signs. This new discourse of the novel incorporates several other literary works at the level of intertextuality (specifically Cervantes’ Don Quixote and Victor Hugo’s novel The Last Day of the Condemned Man), and in this way recalls the genre specificity of the modern novel and the creative processes of text and plot creation.  \nKeywords The Idiot · Writing · Visuality · Corporeality · Literary anthropology · Dostoevsky’s graphopoetics · Don Quixote · The Last Day of the Condemned Man · Book of Revelation · Pascal Pensée · Motifs (point/dot, line, cross, knife)  \n“the hands are capable of doing what the eyes haven’t seen yet.  \nThe hands teach the head.  \nA man writing a novel learns to write if he is a writer.  \nAnd in the process of writing, he masters a theme, creates something new.”  \n(Shklovsky 1981, p. 100)  \nThe history of the reception of The Idiot shows that the novel is at the centre of, in Paul Ricœur’s words,“conflicts of interpretation”(Ricœur 1974) . Different readings  \n􀀂 G. Horváth  \n[horvath.geza.1@ppke.hu](horvath.geza.1@ppke.hu)  \n1 Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Central European Institute, Budapest, Hungary  \ninterpreting the novel in ethical, ideological, metaphysical, religious and psychoanalytical aspects seem to be mutually exclusive in terms of the worldview foundations of these same approaches. The seeming flaws in the novel’s composition are also frequently mentioned, which are usually explained by the fact that Dostoevsky seemed to change his position towards the protagonist all the time in the process of creating the text. Interpreters even systematically distinguish from each other the image of the protagonist in the first part, and in all other parts. Konstantin Mochulsky remarks that“almost to the very end of the novel the last mystery (i.e., the mystery of Myshkin) is impenetrable to its author”(Mochulsky 1995, p. 390) . In this regard, some formal features of plot structure have been discovered (e.g., the “inconsistencies” and,“awkwardnesses” of its structure, see Morson 1997, p. 108), and it is still questionable whether the novel can be considered a unified artistic discourse, and if so, on what levels and in what forms this unity can be grasped.  \nI believe that the aim of discourse in Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot is to develop the artistic language of a previously unknown world, of a unique human experience unfolding within the novel, rather than to convey a finished, completed plot. This paper focuses on the process of constructing this new symbolic language of selfunderstanding, which can be approached through an analysis of the specific interplay of textuality, visuality and corporeality, grounded in the genre of the modern novel itself. These seemingly disparate approaches and disciplines can be brought together in what might be called a literary anthropology of writing.1 Writing is not seen asa recording of verbal language or as a reflection of consciousness: in the process of writing, the refle","cbCaidyJGQA8KEKd","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidyJGQA8KEKd","pdf",1159623,26,"English","# Abstract\n# Reception and interpretive conflicts\n# Literary anthropology of writing\n# Written images and visual signs","[{\"question\":\"What is the main artistic task attributed to Dostoevsky’s discourse in The Idiot?\",\"answer\":\"To develop the artistic language of a previously unknown world and of a unique human experience unfolding in the novel, rather than to convey a finished, completed plot.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the paper connect drawings and calligraphy to the novel’s poetics?\",\"answer\":\"It examines how Dostoevsky’s drawings and calligraphy construct a symbolic language of self-understanding, showing that sketch “ideograms” are metaphorically saturated and become text- and plotforming motifs.\"},{\"question\":\"Which elements does the paper use to approach the novel’s discourse construction?\",\"answer\":\"It approaches the process through the interplay of textuality, visuality, and corporeality, grounded in the genre of the modern novel.\"}]","Writing and Iconicity in The Idiot - towards Dostoevsky’s Graphopoetics | PDF",1792215807,66]