RENE GIRARD'S TRIANGLE OF DESIRE AND THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE UNDERGROUND MAN IN FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY'S NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND

In the article, in the context of numerous literary-critical works by Rene Girard, the author considers Girard's reading of some texts by Fyodor Dostoevsky through the "triangle" of desire and pays special attention to Notes from Underground. According to the author's hypothesis, the text of Notes (especially the first part) cannot be fully and correctly understood through Girard's concept. And the obvious impossibility to include the text of Notes in the series of texts that verify the concept of the triangle of desire entails the lack of explanatory power of Girard's theory in relation to (some) Dostoevsky's works. To prove the stated hypothesis, the author offers his own reading of Notes through the use of various ways of "description": the schemas of narratology and the phenomenological approach (within the Hegelian problem of unhappy consciousness). In the first part of the article, the author sets out the main structural elements and the phenomenology of the triangular desire using examples of Dostoevsky's works and biography (presenting Girard's reading). In the second part, the author offers his own (inevitably limited) critical reading of Notes from Underground. In conclusion, the author analyzes the interested (erroneous) reading of Notes by Rene Girard.