Karamazov Brothers Research Articles

Precedent Names from Russian Literature in English-Language Cartoon

The paper analyzes precedent names of Russian origin in polycode texts of pictorial caricature genre, published in American magazines and available in the licensed cartoonstock.com database. The particular focus is made on the names of Russian writers and poets (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn), and the titles of Russian-language literary works featured in American caricature (War and Peace, Crime and Punishment, The Karamazov Brothers, Cherry Orchard, The Three Sisters and The GULAG Archipelago). Methodologically, the study is based on cognitive, linguo-semiotic, linguo-axiological, and contextual analysis. It is noted that the cartoons convey stereotypical ideas about the works of Russian writers: the intimidating large volume of Tolstoy’s works, and the conciseness of Chekhov’s are both treated ironically; stylistic features (Chekhov’s attention to detail; Dostoevsky’s psychological tension) are ridiculed. Content references are often superficial and only touch upon the most mundane, utilitarian issues, overlooking more complex social and psychological problems (generation gap, internal conflicts). In a truly caricatured light, the authors are depicted as money-makers, and their characters turn into comic figures of popular computer games. Some works of Russian writers are presented in an axiologically deflated way: Anton Chekhov’s plays were turned into sports competitions and ice shows, Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s GULAG Archipelago became a musical. The authors conclude that in English-language polycode texts, Russian precedent literary onyms are predominated with ironic evaluative semantics, and the general irony is accompanied by a tendency towards a simplified, formalized perception of works of Russian literature.

Tra ricerca e memoria: Leggenda di Alessandro Solbiati


 
 
 The article examines Alessandro Solbiati’s second theatrical work, Leggenda, which takes inspiration from the tale “The Grand Inquisitor” included in Dostoevsky’s novel The Karamazov Brothers. After presenting the meaning of this tale in the novel of the Russian writer, it reconstructs the genesis of the opera and the structure of the libretto. Then it analyses the musical forms, the vocal language and the composer’s ‘pensée sonorielle’ and considers them in the light of his musical dramaturgy. Finally, it outlines Solbiati’s aesthetical conception, his relationship with the musical tradition and his personal stance on postmodernism and postwebernian avant-garde.
 
 

Другата руска тройка. Случаят Достоевски

This text attempts to trace a hidden archetype in nineteenth-century Russian literature and how it works in Dostoevsky. As much as there is a lot of space in the metaliterature of the Russian troika, understood as a horses driving and its symbolic metamorphosis of a bird-trio in Gogol, the emphasis here is on the topic, which I can call the “other Russian troika (trio)”. It is about the presence of an almost sacred three-dimensional character, who at one point is attacked and overturned against his presumption of holiness by a fourth demonological hero and a serious battle for his re-sacralization is imminent. Set by the three Baroque witches in Shakespeare's “Macbeth”, led by Hekate, this model was first tested in nineteenth-century Russian literature by Pushkin in “A Tale of Tsar Saltan”, and then in two stages, feminized and masculinized, developed by Dostoevsky in “The Idiot” and “The Karamazov Brothers”, respectively, and finally finds its triumphant ending in Chekhov's “Three Sisters”, whose character system parodies that of “The Idiot”. Why is Dostoevsky such an important link in the listed paradigm?

«Русская почва» и «Великий Инквизитор». Концепции И. В. Киреевского в творческом наследии Ф. М. Достоевского

The article attempts to establish new links between the philosophical and journalistic works of I. V. Kireevsky and F. M. Dostoevsky’s sociopolitical program of «soil science», which the writer de-veloped in the 1860s and 1870s in his novels and journalistic articles. The following hypothesis is put forward: the ideas of I. V. Kireevsky’s «visible and invisible» Church, the role of dogmas and autho-rities in the church life infl uenced the formation of the ideology of Ivan Karamazov’s poem «The Grand Inquisitor» in terms of the conflict between the authoritarian model of the Inquisitor and the ideal of «apostolic Orthodoxy» that reflects the main idea of the novel The Karamazov Brothers.

ОБРАЗ РАХИЛИ В РОМАНЕ «БРАТЬЯ КАРАМАЗОВЫ» Ф.М. ДОСТОЕВСКОГО

The article discusses the mainstreaming features of the Biblical image of Rachel in the chapter «Believing women» from the novel “The Karamazov brothers “ by F. M. Dostoevsky, forced by the creative combination of mythopoeic, folk and autobiographical motifs, as well as the plot transformation of the biblical legend.

Фeдор Достоевский vs Фридрих Шиллер: от романтического разбойника к Федьке Каторжному

The article raises the question why Dostoevsky entered European literature as the first among equals, despite his constant rejection of the West. The author bases his research on the fact of “borrowing” and processing plots in the history of literature as a methodological basis for his analysis, citing well-known examples from the works of Shakespeare, who took other people’s plots and created his masterpieces on their basis. Dostoevsky, in his great Pentateuch, also relied on various plots of European literature, rethinking them. The research focuses on a comparison of the texts of Schiller (“The Robbers”) and Dostoevsky (“The Landlady” and “The Karamazov Brothers”), not only in literary and intellectual contexts, but also in connection with significant changes in Russian culture in the second half of 19th century. The author draws attention to the reader’s perception of the images of Schiller and Dostoevsky and shows that Schiller’s hero — the ataman of robbers Karl Moor — was endowed with the qualities of a strong personality, like Robin Hood, which attracted the reading youth to imitate this hero. In “The Landlady”, old Murinis a robber, but also an old believer who reads books. His terrible past does not show nobility and cannot cause positive emotions in the reader. The article examines the internal connection between the actions of old man Murin and the future image and idea of the Grand Inquisitor. The author believes that the writer’s real convict experience allowed him to depict Murin and other characters as carrying the evil: Fedka the Convict in “Demons” does not distinguish between good and evil, has no conscience, easily kills and easily forgets about the death of the person he killed. The new emphasis in the article is the comparison of the idea of “returning the ticket” to the Lord by Schiller and Dostoevsky. In Schiller’s famous poem “Resignatio n”, the words about “returning the ticket” to the entrance to paradise express the poet’s lyrical alter ego. Dostoevsky gives these words to Ivan Karamazov, who is not the spokesman for the ideas of the writer, for whom faith in God was the center of his world outlook.

KSZTAŁTOWANIE KOMPETENCJI KOMUNIKACYJNYCH NA POZIOMIE AKADEMICKIM. ARS BENE DICENDI NA PRZYKŁADZIE MOWY OSKARŻYCIELSKIEJ HIPOLITA KIRYŁOWICZA Z POWIEŚCI „BRACIA KARAMAZOW” FIODORA DOSTOJEWSKIEGO

The paper proposes the employment of exemplary rhetorical tropes and figures present in literary works for further development of presentation skills in tertiary education students through strengthening their communicative competence. It reflects on rhetorical devices (both semantic and syntactic) and figurative language based on Dostoevsky’s Karamazov Brothers to be later-on used in a contemporary business context to a make any public presentation less of a bore. It strongly promotes and hopefully envisions the great comeback of long-forgotten rhetorical studies that should be reintroduced in HEI agendas in the form of Interpersonal Communication and Public Presentation courses.

Все позволенно. "Братья Карамазовы" в современном театре

Irina Lappo, “Everything is Permitted. «The Karamozov Brothers» in contemporary Theatrical performances”The paper, after a brief analysis of the basic motifs and structural features of Dostoyevsky’s novels, opens with the description of the historical performance of The Karamazov Brothers from 1910 presented in Moscow Artistic Theatre (MCHAT) and directed by Niemirovitsch-Dancenko. The main theme of this paper are three key performance of Dostoyevsky’s final novel: by Janusz Opryski (2010), Sylwa Kricikene (2011) and Lev Erenburg (2016).

Истина и судебная аргументация в романе Ф.М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы»

Истина и судебная аргументация в романе Ф.М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы»

Dostoevsky’s tragic motifs in the theatre of Chekhov: “The Brothers Karamazov” by Nemirovich-Danchenko (Moscow Art Theatre, 1910)

The article analyzes the performance “The Karamazov Brothers” directed by Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko in Moscow Art Theatre in 1910, which had become the first stage interpretation of prose. Dostoevsky’s novels were widely discussed, especially with regard to its affinity with the genre of tragedy. Moscow Art Theatre had been formed within Chekhov’s principles, finding poetry in everyday life — which was far from the classical criteria of tragedy. The theatre often came in for criticism for unsuccessful attempts to stage a tragedy. So this genre posed a challenge for the theatre. Nemirovich-Dancheko in search of forms of tragedy resorted to Dostoevsky’s works. Obviously, there was an initial conflict between the principles of the theatre and the literary material. This conflict brings us to the fundamental problem of the theatre studies: whether tragic genre is compatible with conventional theatre or not. Thearticle reveals that that the fundamental conflict between the aesthetics of conventional theatre and tragic outlook of Dostoevsky is insoluble. However, the theatrical potential of his prose enables actors of psychological style to rise to the level of the tragedy. The crisis of catharsis (major element of tragedy), which the theatre experienced at the turn of XX century — was resolved in the conventional theatre of “life truth”.

Проза Ф. Достоєвського на сцені українського театру: початок творчого пошуку

The most important aesthetic realities of the theatrical process in the second half of the 20th century were comprehended in the context of directors’ readings of Dostoevsky’s prose. Thus, in 1960s, the discussions on the issues of contemporary manner of acting usually focused on I. Smoktunovsky’s performance of the role of Prince Myshkin in «The Idiot» staged by the Leningrad Theater named after Gorky (directed by G. Tovstonogov, 1957).The performances signifi cant for the theater of the 70s’, such as «Petersburg Dreams» in the Theater of the Moscow City Council (1969) and «Brother Alyosha» in the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya (1972), staged by directors Y. Zavadsky and A. Efros, based on «Crime and Punishment» and «The Karamazov Brothers» were «read» by the critics in the context of M. Bakhtin’s study of «Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics».

СОЦИАЛЬНО-ФИЛОСОФСКИЙ АСПЕКТ СПЕЦИФИКИ УГОЛОВНОГО ПРАВОПРИМЕНЕНИЯ В РОССИЙСКОЙ МЕНТАЛЬНОСТИ

This article analyzes the socio-philosophical and socio-cultural approaches to law enforcement practices in the sphere of criminal punishment and its reflection in the Russian mentality. The recognition of ideological pluralism and multidimensionality of the social environment with the existence of differences and contradictions indicates the presence of the law enforcement boundaries as a measure of their certainty. This is due to the fact that law enforcement is associated with mutual interest of the society in the formation of citizenship in the balance of incentives and penalties. The dialectic balance of «weak» and «strong» by means of «the middle attraction» allows one to consider equality as an impossible limit, because it is an equality of those who are not equal. Currently, there is a need of awareness of legal reality on the basis of socio-cultural practices and, moreover, of its cultural content. This phenomenon is due to the identification of law enforcement mechanisms, as well as their dependence on the degree of society relaxation of the state permitted and established criminal penalties, when there are negative consequences of legal nihilism in the Russian mentality. Considering the enforcement as an activity, we must notice that this activity manifests itself in the”act of abstinence" and the "act of doing" (P. Sorokin). If a passive abstinence has place in the first case, the patience appears as a virtue in the second one. In literary practice, this idea is developed by F. M. Dostoevsky and is opposed by L. N. Tolstoy. In «The Karamazov Brothers» the «acts of patience» are explained by the example of Christ's command: «Do not resist evil». The moral awareness transforms the life into true Being, i. e. spiritual Being as «any activity out of the spiritual content is only half the battle» (M. Mamardashvili). Therefore, it is to be wished that every individual had an opportunity to harmonize their personality and mind and also had an idea of true spirituality and its significance for themselves and the whole society. The self-definition of an individual and their openness to accept foreign ideological constructions contribute to the achievement of mutually acceptable forms of behavior («self-preservation behavior») in the community. This behavior is based on the active life position of the law enforcement subject, when one’s responsibility for one’s actions and deeds is combined with Kant's categorical imperative of «Duty». The dialectic balance of «weak» and «strong» is based on the legitimization of the equality. The fundamental equality of all before the law is that we can expect a much more effective solution of the social problems, if we stimulate interpersonal exchanges, instead of relying on the implementation of Someone's knowledge. An activity aspect of law enforcement identifies problems of a lifestyle, quality of life and social communication. Outside its activity aspect the law enforcement is transformed into the realm of speculations, subjective estimations, random parameters and indicators. The moral individual valued conditionality of this behavior is a manifestation of the mentality in contrast to an external economic, social and politically motivated behavior. One gets used to (adapts to) a specific situation. This addiction is accompanied by prolonged social expectations or deferred needs, which are reproduced in specific social and cultural environment (mentality).

ИСПОВЕДАЛЬНОСТЬ ДОСТОЕВСКОГО И СОВРЕМЕННЫЙ АМЕРИКАНСКИЙ РОМАН О ПОДРОСТКЕ

American critics have recognized the adolescent novel as a formative subgenre of the national literature since the middle of the 20 th century, and some have found that Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground are as important for it as Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . However, analysis of J. Salinger’s classic The Catcher in the Rye and Donna Tartt’s recent The Goldfinch shows that The Karamazov Brothers and The Raw Youth (The Adolescent) seem to be even more important for American first-person novels about a young hero as they draw a lot from Dostoevsky’s confessional narratives. The comparison of classic Russian and contemporary American adolescent novels demonstrates parallels in Christian symbolism (Salinger) and urban imagery (Tartt) to reveal the protagonist’s inner self. As in Dostoevsky, confessions in Salinger and Tartt perform both self-analytical and narrative functions. Following Dostoevsky’s model, Salinger and Tartt bring their characters to some reconciliation with the reality thanks to the development of a great theory, or idea. For Salinger’s hero it is a savior-like mission; for Tartt’s it is a discovery of special “middle zone” where he can find both beauty and love. Writing a sincere confession helps both Russian and American adolescents arrive at this relatively peaceful state of mind.

«СТАРИННЫЙ ТРИПТИХ» С. Н. ДУРЫЛИНА И «ПОЧЕМУ ТАК СЛУЧИЛОСЬ» И. С. ШМЕЛЕВА: ПОЭТИКА ХРИСТИАНСКОГО РЕАЛИЗМА

The article presents the investigation of creative connections between Sergei Durylin and Ivan Shmelyov, two emigre writers of the first half of the 20 th century. They were brought together not only by common religious values, but also by their tragic destiny. That is why we believe the comparison of their artistic principles through the example of Durylin's Ancient Triptych (1919-1923) and Shmelyov's How did it all happen? (1944) to be very productive, especially considering that no serious comparative analyze of these works has been done before. The comparison of two texts clearly shows that their problematic and poetics are quite closely connected. Both writers depict the final period of life of outwardly successful, but spiritually devastated personalities (professor of ancient history and general Patrikiy Patrikiyevich Drevlyaninov). Durylin and Shmelyov tried to help their heroes to overcome the spiritual deadlock, senselessness of existence and their personal obsessions (for the professor it is the idea of scientiic labour corrupting the society, for the general it is gambling). Both the professor and the general travel their road of purification, their 'way of the Cross', their Golgotha and their Resurrection. Durylin directly connects his character's road with the liturgical cycle, because 'fighting with the devil' takes place during the Great Lent, while the grandfather sees his life-changing dream on the eve of Easter and the Passion Week. The hero's pilgrimage to Easter forms the plot of this story, actualizing the importance of Easter archetype for Russian literature. The methods used by both authors to free their characters from spiritual emptiness (introduction of a 'spirit character' as a reference to the devil from Dostoyevsky's novel The Karamazov Brothers) are also similar. Stylistic features of Durylin's and Shmelyov's poetics plotlessness, prevailing of metaphysical problematic, Easter archetype and intertextual references to classical literature are also related. All these facts enable us to classify the works of Sergei Durylin and Ivan Shmelyov as Christian realism literature, distinguished by its own artistic principles and the world picture.

The mystery in the community. Isaac of Nineveh and his instructions

When in one of the scenes in “The Karamazov Brothers” by F. Dostoevsky, the works of the mystic Isaac appear on the table, only few readers are aware that the history of Christianity has come full circle. The author from the Assyrian Eastern Church, recognised by his contemporary Church in Constantinople as a heretic, a Nestorian, becomes the moral and spiritual authority for the Orthodox clergyman. Is the mystic or a heretic? The history of Isaac’s texts, which made their way to the Orthodox Church through the anchor of orthodoxy – the community of the Mount Athos, is even stranger.

Отражение образа свт. Тихона Задонского и его сочинений в творчестве и мировоззрении Ф. М. Достоевского

The article considers the facts allowing to talk about the significance of personality and writings by St. Tikhon (Zadonskii) for Dostoevskii. The writer contrasted the image of St. Tikhon with the positive protagonists of modern literature. Dostoevskii used the features of Tikhon when creating the images of the bishop ("The Obsessed"), Zosima the monastic elder ("Karamazov Brothers"), Makar Dolgorukii ("Juvenile"). Dostoevskii's characters and the saint share joyful Easter perception of the world and people.

"The Karamazov Brothers" as intellectualgames

The article analizes the television version of EM. ПойоуелгекуЪ "The Karamazov Brothers". The author treats the TV series in question as a typical screen production possessing all the techniques characteristic of Russian television, as an adaptation of me classic text's philosophic and artistic richness in accordance with the laws of mass perseption. The artical gives a consise history of the novel's adaptations in the world cinema.

Фокусировка как возможный термин нарратологии (на материале романа Ф.М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы»)

Фокусировка как возможный термин нарратологии (на материале романа Ф.М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы»)

Novelizing Religious Experience: The Generic Landscape of The Brothers Karamazov

In this article, Kate Holland examines the significance of Christian legend in The Brothers Karamazov. Arguing that the novel's main creative mission was the reincorporation of religious experience into the novelistic form, Holland explores how Fedor Dostoevskii integrates the worldviews of hagiography, apocrypha, and folk legend into the novel through the generic identities of the Karamazov brothers. Similarities and differences on die level of character are expressed in the conflict between genres, leading to an examination of the novel's own generic assumptions, and a genre memory of its roots within medieval religious and vernacular works. Holland locates this interest within the critical and theoretical debates on the nature of the novel taking place in Russian academic and critical circles as Dostoevskii was writing the novel. The heterogeneous nature of the religious worldviews modeled by Dostoevskii subverts the conventional view of the novel as an expression of Orthodoxy and constitutes a radical experiment in novelistic form.

Why Read Dostoevsky?

Janine Langan Why Read Dostoevsky?? DOSTOEVSKY FASCINATES. I am always surprised at the response ofmy NorthAmerican students to The Karamazov Brothers. Here they are, forced to read eight hundred pages. To get a grade. Logically, this should turn them off and make them hate this novel.Yet, they can't help it: they too, get fascinated, and stick with the book to the bitter end.Why? When Dostoevsky died, a weeklong wake was held in his apartment . So numerous were the delegations from schools and institutions that the candles kept going out for lack ofoxygen. All lectures at university were canceled at the news.A hundred thousand people participated in his three-hour funeral procession—authors and princes, peasants and workers; above all students, pressed around the coffin which they were granted the privilege to carry. "This was not a burial but a triumph of life, the resurrection of life," commented the newspapers. This kind of public response is exactly what Dostoevsky had hoped for.What makes a writer great, he thought, was the sweep of his appeal—how wide, variegated, and empathetic his public. He had LOGOS 3:1 WINTER 2oOO 94 LOGOS a message ofhope, intended to recreate community out ofhis decadent society, and was set on communicating it by any way that worked. Poetry, the word, literature is also a medicine.There is at least some measuring rod to determine what is good in poetry and what is inappropriate for it.This measuring rod is simple:The more sympathy a poet arouses in the masses, the more he justifies his appearance as a poet. This awakening of sympathy is a work of spirit recognizing spirit outside itself, as it was already in the New Testament. It is not rooted in a political stand, but in reciprocity. There is no doubt that, like so many great Western authors from Dante to Mallarmé, Dostoevsky saw himself as extending a project launched thousand ofyears ago byJewishprophets, and refocused by Christ's gospel writers. His novels are thus the least elitist imaginable. Most of them, including The Karamazov Brothers, were published by installment in newspapers. He even created a new form ofjournalism, a regular insert ofhis own Diary, in "the Citizen": he wished to let all Russians participate in his thoughts and plans. For he passionately believed in the prophetic role ofthe writer, a role eventually to be transferred to the reader. In this world oflies and sick fantasies, he wanted to be witness to the truth as it reveals itself, moment by moment, in our daily lives. He wanted to open other eyes to the magnificent mystery throbbing at the core of every human life, even the starkest. His work is training in seeing this truth. And this is why his readers get caught:Truth is, after all, seductive. The power of Dostoevsky's writing resides in its honesty: Dostoevsky never spoke of what he had not lived himself. And he had lived more intensely than most the key experiences ofEveryman. He knew the terror of history in the making: he lived the tail end of Czarist Russia, smelled its decay, and the approach ofthe bloody rev- WHY READ DOSTOEVSKY?9^ olution about to overwhelm the West. But he also experienced a more personal kind of anguish: the panic of the loser, incapable to shed his addictions, unworthy ofhis own vision and dreams. Dostoevsky was a gambler, and never succeeded in shaking offthis obsession , however much he hated making his wife and children suffer. He also suffered from a terrifying mental illness: epilepsy. Dostoevsky was thus an expert in"chaos." He knew by personal experience what it means to feel personally overwhelmed by inside and outside forces. His books are his response to these external and internal challenges. They are hymns to the light which promises to inform that chaos, to the lightwhichmade possible the first creation and can again bring about a new creation out ofthat chaos:The light oiPravda, the light ofTrutil. Pravda Dostoevsky loved that word, so specifically Russian:The word Pravda means reality, but also justice. Truth/Pravcia is a vision of the world that is not abstract idea but also life, an ideal of the...