A New Word on 'The Brothers Karamazov' by Robert Louis Jackson

Abstract

MLR, IOI .2, 2oo6 6I5 banter in the poem and injects something of the disjointedness of reverie which is so effective. In the context of a series investigating the breadth and nature of Pushkin's legacy, it is fitting that the final section should be dedicated to a study of his impact abroad. David Baguley investigates the relationship between Pushkin and Prosper Merimee and points out the similarities in style and choice of subject between the two men. In his chapter on Pushkin and Henry James, Neil Cornwell instances the mechanics of appropriation whereby core aspects of theme and structure in 'The Queen of Spades' are reformulated by his American successor. Finally, in a neat link to the professional affiliation of the two editors of this series, Samantha T. Johnson reveals the little-known episode of Grand Duke Mikhail and Countess Torby's te nancy (she being Pushkin's granddaughter) at Keele Hall in Staffordshire between I90I and I9IO. Two Hundred Years of Pushkin is ambitious in both the number and the variety of angles from which the essays contained therein approach the work and legacy of Alexander Pushkin. And in very large part, itmeets its own aims. This is an impressive and highly informative collection of essays which offers much, not simply to the scholar of Pushkin, but also to the reader interested inRussian and European literature on a broader scale. It stands as a testament to the wealth and importance of the monument of Pushkin and itself becomes an important contribution to Pushkin studies. UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS CLAIRE WHITEHEAD A New Word on 'TheBrothers Karamazov'. Ed. by ROBERTLouis JACKSON. (North western University Press Studies in Russian Literature and Theory) Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. 2004. Xii+26i pp. $79.95. ISBN o-8ioi I949-8. A New Word on 'The Brothers Karamazov' came together from the proceedings of the last of the Yale Conferences in Slavic Literatures and Cultures in I999, a series inaugurated by Robert Louis Jackson, the editor. The volume pays tribute to the influence of Jackson, one of the most revered of today's Dostoevsky scholars, as the majority of the contributors have cause to refer to his seminal studies, Dostoevsky's Questfor Form (I966; 2nd edn [Bloomington, IN]: Physsardt, I978) and The Art of Dostoevsky: Deliriums and Nocturnes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, I98 I). There are sixteen essays in all, the final one a closing overview by William Mills Todd III. Here, Todd reinforces Jackson's prefatory image of The Brothers Karama zov as a literary Chartres Cathedral, unable to be seen fully from a single point of view, as he acknowledges the wide range of genres and discourses in terms of which the contributors approach the novel. The essays are indeed diverse in their treatments, but there is a cohesion in the volume as awhole that is achieved by an openness in its parts and by the fact that many of the essays complement and illuminate each other. It would be too great a task to discuss all sixteen contributions here, but I hope to show with a few examples how the authors together unveil the multi-faceted yet organically whole nature of The Brothers Karamazov. Lee Johnson offers an original perspective on Smerdiakov as 'would-be saint' (p. 74), discussing the suppressed presence in Smerdiakov of higher spiritual ele ments. For example, he interprets the young boy's question to Grigorii about the origin of light at the Creation not asmockery of the biblical word, forwhich Grigorii unjustly punishes him, but as an intuition of the divine light of God, a crucial factor in the Eastern Orthodox conception of theosis. He argues that Smerdiakov's uncon scious struggles for a closer relationship with the divine, despite his conscious efforts 6i6 Reviews to embrace the doctrine of 'all is permitted'. Following this isVladimir Golstein's article on 'accidental families and surrogate fathers' (p. 90), where he continues the discussion of Grigorii and Smerdiakov, highlighting the former's failures as a father through examples of lack of compassion, dogmatism, and closed-mindedness. Thus he attributes toGrigorii a share of the responsibility for themurder of Fedor Karama zov.Horst-Jurgen Gerigk later completes the...