The imagination of matter. The earth archetype in the early Dostoevsky

From his earliest works, Dostoevsky seems to be dominated by imagery closely related to earth, to the chthonic world. His narra- tive faculty finds support and expression in a complex of earthly images that, at various moments of his life, will evolve into ideas and positions. In the form of infinite variations, the archetype of the earth is thus a central motif of Dostoevsky’s work. In this essay, I will circumscribe the theme, the archetype of the earth, to the first Dostoevsky and, in particular, to a work chosen as a metonymy, Mr. Prokharchin (1846). His writing, so concrete and historically concerned, is nourished by an ancient, hidden substrate, that is mythological and archetypal, and which dates back to the sources of European literature.