From Mordasov to Dukhanovo and back: toponymic space of the of Dostoyevsky’s novel «Uncle’s dream»

The role of place names in Dostoevsky’s literary texts is never reduced to a nominative function, which consists in the designation of the place of action of the work. The peculiarity of toponymic vocabulary in fiction is explained by its ability to act as an indicator (and in the Dostoevsky’s texts – as a generator) of the chronotope, which is due to the connection of place names with a certain historical era. Dostoevsky’s literary texts demonstrate the relationship between toponymic and anthroponymic space: the name of a geographical object determines the proper names of those who inhabit it. In this paper we study the toponymic space of the little-studied Dostoevsky’s novel «Uncle’s dream». Place names Mordasov, Duhanovo, Igishevo are regarded as text- and plot-units. The onomastic space of the story, organized by place names, reflects the writer’s desire for topographical accuracy, but at the same time the toponymic system of the story «Uncle’s dream» adjusts the reader to the perception of the world of sleep, where everything is possible: the distortion of the concepts of good and evil, the transformation of life into a farce, mutually beneficial coexistence of dolls and people. Place names and anthroponyms introduced into the text of the story represent an important feature of the Dostoevsky’s creative laboratory all periods – the attraction to semantically marked onomastic units. The proper names of the works of art by Dostoevsky are a system conditioned by both the ideological content and the chronotope, in the formation of which toponyms actively participate, which can be observed already in the story «Uncle’s dream». Many place names of the novel under study, like the place names of other works of the writer, are autobiographical, and therefore each proper name in the Dostoevsky’s literary texts should be considered in the context of the unity of his creative and life path.