Dostoevsky Research Articles

THE IMAGE OF THE FOOL IN CHRIST IN THE STORIES OF V. A. NIKIFOROV-VOLGIN

The article analyzes the semantics of the image of the holy fool in V. A. Nikiforov-Volgin’s short stories “Holy Fool” and “Glebushka the Holy Fool.” The image of the holy fool in the author’s prose took shape under the influence of the Old Russian literary tradition, works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Shmelev. Nomination of the holy fool in the prose writer’s works reflects the character’s childishness and soul purity, characteristic for this image. Glebushka the Holy Fool from the eponymous short story is a big child, and he is praying for forgiveness for his people, who are burdened with great sins. The holy fool in V. A. Nikiforov-Volgin’s short stories is a traveler, a pilgrim who lives outside the community. An encounter with him makes other characters rethink their lives, and offers an opportunity for repentance and life changes. Nikitushka (“Holy Fool”) is a messenger of the spiritual world; he appears to be reverend-like for one of the story’s characters. This hero appeals to the characters’ conscience without words, notations or rebukes; he relates to the motifs of spiritual transformation and enlightenment. The repentant bandit bows to the ground before the holy fool, thus pleading for forgiveness, and expressing humbleness and awe of the sanctitude. In this short story, Nikitushka the Holy Fool becomes the one who helps the wayward sinner reach God.The world of angels is close to the holy fool. V. A. Nikiforov-Volgin’s short stories present angels either as the holy fool’s interlocutors, or characters in the spiritual poems recited by the holy fool.The holy fool is an advocate not only for salvation for particular people, but for all of Russia.

Galie, Jason. Don’t Be a Stranger: Russian Literature and the Perils of Not Fitting In

Jason Galie’s monograph Don’t Be a Stranger: Russian Literature and the Perils of Not Fitting In represents a succinct and original interrogation of the ‘свой/чужой’ (svoi/chuzhoi) phenomena that appears in Russian literature, culture and society. These terms represent a linguistic opposition which has traditionally been translated into English as ‘one’s own’ (свой) and ‘the other, the stranger’ (чужой). In his book, Galie calls for a more nuanced understanding of the terms, particularly of ‘чужой’, which has since the nineteenth century taken on negative associations to refer to someone as a ‘stranger’: someone who is not quite a part of one’s close, intimate group; someone who is not to be trusted, and is, at worst, to be feared. Galie centres his discussion on two prominent works of nineteenth-century Russian literature – Aleksandr Griboedov’s play Woe from Wit, and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Demons – to highlight how, throughout this period, social understandings and usage of ‘свой/чужой’ began to change and evolve into their modern senses.

Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, and Epilepsy.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was a brilliant nineteenth-century Russian novelist who had a seizure disorder that influenced his life and his creativity.His novels explore issues of love, faith, doubt, morality and reflect his personal experience with epilepsy. He was a keen observer of familial psychodynamics. The Brothers Karamazov (1880)was Dostoyevsky's longest and last novel, completed just a few months before his death from a pulmonary hemorrhage, most likely related to his life-long habit of cigarette smoking.In this novel, he explores the subtility of interpersonal relationships and the psychopathology within the Karamazov family and how one of the three brothers, Smerdyakov, uses psychogenic non-epileptic seizures as an alibi to get away with the perfect crime of patricide.

Disrupted Lines: The Illegitimately Born Narrator in Dostoevsky and Hurston

This essay explores the illegitimately born first-person narrator as a figure and technical device in two very different novels: Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Adolescent (Podrostok, 1875) and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). I argue that both Dostoevsky and Hurston use illegitimately born narrators to extend the novel form, centering the "voice" of a character who defies the genre's conventions at the time and place of writing. At the same time, Hurston and Dostoevsky use the figure of illegitimacy to unsettle their readers' assumptions about the rights of fiction itself; that is, the social, political, or spiritual weight of a sustained encounter with the author's "house rules." Unexpectedly, by ceding the narrative to illegitimately born and socially marginalized characters, both authors signal self-consciously utopian visions of novelistic narrative's lasting power.

The Holy See and Fyodor Dostoevsky: Mutual Attraction and Repulsion

The article analyzes the attitude of Fyodor Dostoevsky toward the Roman Catholic Church. The author shows how Dostoevsky comes to the Slavophile idea of unity and the impossibility of salvation outside church communion, while speaking of the Church as an ecclesia, that is, an assembly of believers. At the same time, the reception of Dostoevsky from the side of the Vatican is presented. In the article, special attention is paid to the perception of Dostoevsky’s ideas by Pope Francis. The author notes that the point of attraction and repulsion between Dostoevsky and Catholic culture lies in the plane of his understanding of the concepts of nationality and universality. Dostoevsky’s Russian idea and his view on the essence of Christianity grows from the synthesis of these concepts. The author emphasizes that only in this perspective it is necessary to interpret Dostoevsky’s ideas.

Reflections on Leonard J. Arrington

Reflections on Leonard J. Arrington

محمد عاصم بٹ کے ناول "بھید "میں وجودیت

In 20th century existentialism theory introduced in Europe in literature and decided to discuss the relations between individual and universe or creator. In Fiction writers like Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jean- Paul Sartre, Frannz kaflea etc got fame in this context, specially, the stranger, and crime punishment, Nausea, respectively considered Master pieces. In subcontinent partition is third dilemma in addition to two World Wars. So the Question of existence of man arose after displacement and Continuity of colonialism in different forms. In Urdu Literature fiction writers also took it as subject but only few of them succeeded to apply existentialism theory in novels. Because, the techniques, require for this subject are, not easy. Muhammad Asim Butt influenced by Franz kafks in terms of style and technique. He wrote this novel in an absurdist, unorthodox and bizarre fashion. Apparently, the events described in simple language but between the lines multiple meaning is existed. Butt portrayed a multishade picture of our society. In this article efforts have been made to depict the reality lies in Bhaid.

Fyodor Dostoevsky vs. Nikolai Kostomarov: genesis of Smerdyakov's сharacter in The Brothers Karamazov

The author examines one of the episodes of N.I. Kostomarov's Autobiography - the circumstances of his father's murder as the main source of Smerdyakov's image in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov and its correlation with Dostoevsky's criticism of the idea “If there is no God, then everything is allowed!”. It is proved that Dostoevsky could have learned this episode in an oral transmission either personally from Kostomarov, or through mutual acquaintances with him. The connection is traced through the common Turkic origin of the surnames Kostomarov and Karamazov. It is proved that in The Brothers Karamazov Dostoevsky stands against Kostomarov's opinion about the differences between the South Russian and Great Russian families, expressed in the article Two Russian Nationalities .

Dialogues between Ivan and Smerdyakov after the murder of their father from The Brothers Karamazov: their educational implications

ABSTRACT In the modern world, alienation and marginalisation are serious issues that make people doubt the existence of God. Due to the development of science and technology, which allows humans more space to act as they desire, society has become even more secularised. Fyodor Dostoevsky foresaw and struggled with these problems – as represented in his literary masterpieces, such as The Brothers Karamazov. However, his works are rarely discussed in educational fields. This study, therefore, aims to analyse and obtain educational implications from the dialogues between Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov and Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov during three visits after the murder of their father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, in The Brothers Karamazov. Ivan rebelled against God because of the injustice in this world, while Smerdyakov had been a victim of such injustice from his birth. They cooperated based on the Man-God ideology advocated by Ivan. However, it did not liberate them; rather, they awoke with a sense of guilt. For educational implications, while Ivan did not consider Smerdyakov an equal, ‘good people’ treated them differently. They supported Smerdyakov and Ivan with care and realist senses by not only supporting the brothers in any situation but also predicting and accepting undesirable scenarios for them.

Deep Boredom in the Underground

ABSTRACT This article examines the problem of boredom articulated in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. Boredom has two principal types: (1) the boredom that results from being unable to commit oneself to any final position; and (2) the boredom that results from complete commitment to a final position, thereby foreclosing consideration of other possibilities for thought and action. Both kinds of boredom prove to be ways of illusion insofar as they imply a freedom that human beings, gripped by the humiliating necessity of nature, likely do not and cannot have. Boredom ends up as a palliative call to action and suffering.

“Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and European Culture: On the 200th Anniversary of the Great Russian Writer” International Scientific Conference

The article provides a summary of “Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and European Culture” International Scientific Online Conference, held by the International Laboratory for the Study of Russian-European Intellectual Dialogue of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in cooperation with the Dostoevsky’s Moscow House Museum Center. At the conference, leading experts in various fields of the humanities presented various reports on the mutual influence of Dostoevsky and European culture. Research attention was paid to the problem of the influence of the Russian writer on the creative development of European philosophical and artistic thought. The speakers demonstrated the history of translations of Dostoevsky’s novels into foreign languages. The participants of the conference also reflected the influence of the concepts of Western European philosophy, literature, and culture on the fiction and religious thought of the writer. A number of conference reports were devoted to the cultural and philosophical problems of Dostoevsky’s works. The researchers examined the religious and philosophical dialogues of the novel Demons, paying special attention to the controversial image of the protagonist of the novel – Nikolai Stavrogin. Leading Dostoyevsky specialists turned to the littlestudied aspects of his journalism, defining the role of the “Jewish question.” The conference presented literary critics’ interpretations of Dostoevsky’s novels, the history of screen and musical adaptations of his works in European and Russian art.

«Современные записки» о «неканонизированном» писателе Н.С. Лескове

The purpose of this article is to answer the questions: how the publications of the magazine Current Notes considered the work of N. S. Leskov and why his name appeared on the pages of this magazine mainly "in special cases". Current Notes magazine was published from 1920 to 1940 in Paris, the city that became the capital of Russia’s culture in the period of "national dispersal". The readers and authors of the magazine recognized its unique role as "the guardian of legacy" and "treasure house of Russian culture". The magazine included several sections related to the issues of literature, arts, philosophy, economy, political and social life, there were also permanent columns titled Culture and life, Literary criticism and bibliography. The numerous publications were devoted to the history of Russian classical literature, with the main focus on Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky. However, the editorial board considered Current Notes as "general literary political" rather than "special historical literary" magazine. For this reason, the name of Nikolai Leskov appeared in the materials occasionally mostly "in special cases". The author of the novel The Cathedral Folk (Soboriane) is mentioned in the work of D. I. Chizhevsky, in some reviews of academic studies and books, articles on the new editions of the classical novelists. The special jubilee publications in the magazine on the occasion of the hundredth birthday of Nikolai Leskov written by P. M. Pilsky. The analysis of the content of the mentioned materials is the subject of this article.

Altering Nature (Speculations over Elizaveta Konshina’s Draft Papers)

The present article deals with the works of Elizaveta Konshina who studied Anton Chekhov’s notes and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s manuscripts in 1920–1930. First and foremost, these are the bibliographical documents of 1910–1920 that build up a clear picture of Konshina’s researches in literature studies and her lifelong interest in textual criticism, in decoding draft papers, publishing letters and speculating over the structure of complete collections of works of Russian writers. These notecards show quite distinctly her interest in the issues of rhythm and structure of a prosaic text. Secondly, step by step Konshina’s draft notes reconstruct Dostoyevsky’s manuscripts of “Demons” and “The Brothers Karamazov”. Dostoyevsky’s manuscripts have long been studied and have been published many times but Konshina’s draft notes have never been looked into in this respect. Her papers are classic examples of textual decoding in terms of accuracy and completeness and help to reconstruct distinctive features of Dostoyevsky’s writing style even in his rough drafts as far as his poetics is concerned. The article focuses on the very process of developing working topics by Konshina who used to hold them long in her keeping and wouldn’t hurry to publish her books and articles.

Comparative Genology: Genre Modifications and Genre Metamorphism

The article under studies deals with the issue of the comparative aspects of genre. Particular emphasis has been placed on the genre form (in the sense of a characteristic matrix/canon as a complex of specific factors), which functions in terms of a continuous literary process and, accordingly, adapts to its contextual changes, deviations, objections, innovations, correlations, needs of the receptive environment. The author’s and the reader’s perception of the meanings, contained in a particular genre, do not necessarily coincide. Consequently, the issue of the so-called multiplicity of genre logic ( Jean-Marie Schaeffer’s proposal) directly appeals to the comparativistic experience of studying typological coincidences or borrowings that affect the genre as such. Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Adolescent is taken as an example of genre modification. Its genre is regarded in contamination with the genre of confession by means of comparing the individual plot lines and interpreting the main characters, which are perceived in the biblical context. Besides, it acquires a different perspective in clarifying the general author’s idea. Finally, the article singles out such terminological syntagms as genre polymorphism, genre modifications, and genre metamorphism.

КРАТКИЙ КУРС ПНЕВМАТОЛОГИИ В РОМАНЕ ФЕДОРА ДОСТОЕВСКОГО "ИДИОТ"

КРАТКИЙ КУРС ПНЕВМАТОЛОГИИ В РОМАНЕ ФЕДОРА ДОСТОЕВСКОГО "ИДИОТ"

АВТОР, ЗРИТЕЛЬ И ЧИТАТЕЛЬ ДРАМЫ В РЕЦЕПЦИИ Ф. М. ДОСТОЕВСКОГО

The article shows that one of the subjects of reception of Mikhail and Fyodor Dostoevsky in the critical analysis of “The Thunderstorm” Drama in Five Acts by A. N. Ostrovsky (1860), dedicated to the dramaturgy of A. N. Ostrovsky, was the specificity of drama as a type of literature. It is emphasized that critics have undertaken a comparison of the strategies of the epic writer and the playwright, the activities of the reader of the epic-narrative work and the viewer, as well as the reader of the drama and the viewer. It was revealed that the focus of their attention was the difference in the perception of a dramatic work by the viewer and the reader. The reception of the Dostoevskys is described, which is of a theoretical nature; according to it, the playwright creates a “ready-made” character, the expression of which is manifested in the development of dramatic action. It is emphasized that, according to critics, the logic of the character’s actions must be carefully thought out and justified by the author in advance, so that during the performance it can be immediately open and understandable to the viewer. The viewer is simultaneously involved with the character in the dynamics of the development of the action; emotions are dominant in his perception; the playwright should not excite the “mind and imagination” of the viewer. The viewer will be required to work with imagination, but only in terms of scenography: such imagination will have the nature of an addition to what is succinctly outlined by the playwright. On the one hand, the reader of a dramatic text approaches the reader of an epic-narrative work, but in contrast to the viewer, he is more analytical than emotional. On the other hand, the possibilities of dialogue with the author (compared to the reader of an epic-narrative work) are narrowed for both the viewer and the reader of the dramatic text. It has been suggested that the Dostoevskys relied on the theory of drama by G. V. F. Hegel and his follower V. G. Belinsky. The article argues that F. M. Dostoevsky in his further work returned to the provisions from the critical analysis of A. N. Ostrovsky’s dramaturgy and developed them. It is shown that in the theatrical chapters of “Notes from the House of the Dead” and “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions”, as well as in the draft sketch “On the People’s Theater “Petrushka””> the writer examined the perception of the audience in a variety of ways: in psychological, social, ideological, aesthetic aspects. In the 1870s. F. M. Dostoevsky continued to be interested in the question of the differences between different types of art, while his interest in the deep nature of the general emotional reaction of the auditorium intensified

The theme of existential loneliness in Søren Kierkegaard’s and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s works

The article deals with the topic of existential loneliness as a category of poetics, which is reflected in works of the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novels. The question of typological convergences in the world view of Kierkegaard and Dostoevsky has been discussed in philosophical writings, but the question of literary interpretation of the ontological category of loneliness in books of both of writers has not be raised. Loneliness becomes one of the most important concepts for understanding the evolution of human soul (stages on life’s way) in Kierkegaard philosophy. The theme of loneliness has been developed in Romantic literature and it was one of the central problems for it, but Kierkegaard invents a new understanding of human being and uses the concept “existence” to describe it. The human loneliness in this world becomes both the subject of reflection and the subject of analysis, which displays the existential dialectics. The similar embodiment of the theme of loneliness is also the characteristic of Dostoevsky’s works, where a hero, who tries to find himself, should make his existential choice: to accept or not his own loneliness. And his further life depends on this choice: he can go to the way of spiritual rise or to death. The theme of loneliness is closely related to the concept of despair, which was introduced by Kierkegaard, because it is a human desire to be oneself. In the early Dostoevsky’s books (“The Double”, “Poor Folk”) heroes desire to avoid loneliness abandoning their own self, and it leads to tragedy. In later books, loneliness becomes a way to find oneself with different results: it can lead to the collapse of hero’s life (the man from underground, Smerdyakov, Ivan Karamazov) or to spiritual rise (Raskolnikov, the ridiculous man). Prince Myshkin could except his loneliness and save himself, but he makes a choice in favor of passion. Dostoevsky not only describes the emotional state of his lonely heroes, but he analyzes the phenomenon of loneliness the same way as Kierkegaard does it.

Казус Родиона Раскольникова, который не смог убить Алену Ивановну. Опыты альтернативной истории

The paper concerns a question of great importance for history as a science, namely the problem of the limits of factual veracity and connected to them the phenomenon of alternate history — a phenomenon that does exist despite the repeated assertion that history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. The author of the paper is convinced that intellectual and artistic reflection about the past, both personal and social, is indispensable for people, countries, and the whole world. Fyodor Dostoevsky, in his Pushkin speech (1880), successfully exercised the right to think in terms of alternate history. According to Dostoevsky, had Pushkin lived longer, he could have solved the problems which not only had not been solved by the end of Dostoevsky’s life, but had been aggravated to the extreme. The paper analyses the animated series created by Kaspersky Lab under the general title “History Could Have Gone Differently.” The series has five parts: “Raskolnikov,” “Pushkin,” “Chapayev,” “Charles Darwin (Evolution),” “Jack the Ripper.” It is worth mentioning that the image of Raskolnikov has been taken by the creators of the series as such a well-known character that he came to be treated as a real historical person. The animated cartoon “Raskolnikov” sheds light on important features of alternate history: in most cases, it does not provide universally valid solutions and functions selectively, fragmentarily, paving the so called “other way” not for all and not always. We cannot invent any technical devices for saving people preventively from destructive theories and criminal designs: in order to make Raskolnikov’s story go another way other means are needed.

Загробный мир в рассказе Ф.М. Достоевского «Бобок»

The article is devoted to the study of the description of the otherworld in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s mystical story “Bobok,” first published in 1873 in the author’s column A Writer’s Diary of the weekly Grazhdanin (Dostoevsky was at the time both author and editor of the magazine.) The short story is considered in the context of other texts of the column and the writer’s previous statements about the problem of human afterlife. Special attention is paid in the article to the interpretation of the title of the story, with its reference to beans, which have been related to the world of the dead in many cultures since ancient times. For this reason, various sources on the history of religion, ethnography and folklore are considered. The article also deals with the theme of the dead souls’ passing through aerial toll houses in the story and the unexpected role people play in this passage according to Dostoevsky. It is proved that the most obvious and attention-grabbing journalistic and satirical layer of the story “Bobok” does not exhaust the author’s intention at all, and it is not able to determine the depth of this work.

The Dilemma of Lawful Obedience in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment

The Dilemma of Lawful Obedience in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment