Some Narrative Techniques of Dostoevsky's Works: Unity Through Fragmentariness
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“Thoughts on the Idiot by Dostoevsky”1 Hermann Hesse
“Thoughts on The Idiot by Dostoevsky”1 Hermann Hesse 1919 DOSTOEVSKY'S "Idiot", Prince Leo Myshkin, is often compared to Jesus. This is easy enough to do. You can compare to Jesus anyone who has been touched by one of the magical truths, who no longer separates thinking from living and thereby isolates himself in the midst of his surroundings and becomes the opponent of all. Beyond that, the comparison between Myshkin and Jesus seems to me not exactly apt. Only one characteristic in Myshkin, an important one to be sure, strikes me as Jesus-like - his timid chastity. The concealed fear of sex and procreation is a characteristic that could not be wanting in the "historical" Jesus, the Jesus of the Gospels, a trait that is clearly part of his world and is not neglected in even so superficial a portrait of Jesus as Renan's. But it is strange - little though I sympathize with the constant comparison between Myshkin and Christ - that I too see the two images unconsciously related to each other. It only occurred to me belatedly and in connection with a tiny matter. One day when I was thinking about the "idiot" I realized that my first thought of him always seems to be an apparently insignificant one. In the first flash of my imagination I always see him in one particular secondary scene of no importance in itself. I have exactly the same experience with the Savior. Whenever an association calls up the image of Jesus or I hear or see the word "Jesus," what leaps into my mind first is not Jesus on the cross, or Jesus in the wilderness, or Jesus the miracle worker, or Jesus risen from the dead, but Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, tasting the last cup of loneliness, his soul torn by the woes of impending death and a higher rebirth. -
FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Read by Constantine Gregory
The COMPLETE CLASSICS Idiot UNABRIDGED FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Read by Constantine Gregory Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin is one of the great characters in Russian literature. Is he a saint or just naïve? Is he an idealist or, as many in General Epanchin’s society feel, an ‘idiot’? Certainly his return to St Petersburg after years in a Swiss clinic has a dramatic effect on the beautiful Aglaia, youngest of the Epanchin daughters, and on the charismatic but wilful Nastasya Filippovna. As he paints a vivid picture of Russian society, Dostoyevsky shows how principles conflict with emotions – with tragic results. Constantine Gregory is an actor, dialogue coach and ‘voice’. Constantine has more than 30 years’ experience in all these capacities on international projects with many major film directors, including Danny Boyle, Bernardo Bertolucci, Terry Gilliam, Neil Jordan and Julie Taymor and with actors such as Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Nicole Kidman, George Clooney, Gerard Depardieu, Chiwetel Eijofor, Keanu Reeves, Eva Green and many, many others. With Edmund Caldecott, Constantine runs the website Total running time: 24:58:10 • 21 CDs Spoken Ink, dedicated to short audios for download, and for which he has recorded a View our catalogue online at n-ab.com/cat number of short stories himself. = Downloads (M4B chapters or MP3 files) = CDs (disc–track) 1 1-1 The Idiot 8:32 23 3-7 Myshkin turned round quickly… 12:04 2 1-2 Such omniscient gentlemen are to be found… 9:06 24 3-8 Chapter 8 11:32 3 1-3 ‘But perhaps I do know!’ said the official… -
A Tragedy of Unforgiveness
29 deborah a . martinsen Columbia University The Idiot: A Tragedy of Unforgiveness In characterizing The Idiot as a tragedy of unforgiveness, I am offering a new perspective on Nastasya Filippovna and the choices she faces throughout the novel, many of which hinge on Nastasya’s ability to forgive her wrongdoers or herself or both . In her article on forgiveness for The Routledge Encyclope- dia of Philosophy, Kathryn Norlock writes “Forgiveness is a response to wrong- doing characterized by forswearing or overcoming the fullness of blame that one could otherwise justifiably hold against a wrongdoer” 1. While some phi- losophers view forgiveness primarily as an internal process “characterized by a change of heart or a choice to revise one’s dispositions, beliefs, or attitudes to- ward the offender”,2 others see it primarily as a social practice “characterized by effecting of a morally significant consequence such as the release or relief of an offender” 3. In the case of Nastasya Filippovna, forgiveness is primarily an inter- nal process, one that requires that she overcome, on moral grounds, “the in- tense negative reactive attitudes – the vindictive passions of resentment, anger, hatred, and the desire for revenge – that are quite naturally occasioned when one has been wronged by another responsible agent” .4 The Idiot’s main action pivots around Nastasya Filippovna, whose guardi- an, Afanasy Totsky, abused her when she was younger and now wants to mar- ry elsewhere . As the narrator makes clear, Nastasya Filippovna hates not on- ly Totsky, but herself . The question posed throughout Part One is what will she do? Will she follow Totsky’s script and marry Ganya Ivolgin? Or will she act as 1 Kathryn J . -
Prince Myshkin As a Tragic Interpretation of Don Quixote Slav N
Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Modern Languages Faculty Research Modern Languages 2015 Prince Myshkin as a Tragic Interpretation of Don Quixote Slav N. Gratchev PhD Marshall University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/languages_faculty Part of the Modern Languages Commons, and the Modern Literature Commons Recommended Citation Gratchev, Slav N. "Prince Myshkin as a Tragic Interpretation of Don Quixote." Cervantes: Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America, vol. 35, no. 1, 2015, pp. 137-51. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Modern Languages at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Modern Languages Faculty Research by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Prince Myshkin as a Tragic Interpretation of Don Quixote _______________________________________S!"# N. G$"%&'(# )$*$+,+-.!/, 0'+!( #+$%)"!!/ -1 one doubts Fyodor Dostoevsky’s profound and direct indebtedness to Miguel de Cervantes in !e Idiot, manifested in the obvious connection between Don Quixote Sand Prince Myshkin, no one yet has fully analyzed both how and why Myshkin—a character more dialogically elaborate and versatile than Don Quixote—turned out to be more limited in literary expressivity than his more “monological” counterpart. 2e essay seeks to remedy this analytical absence but focusing on just how the realness of Dostoevsky’s hero became a weakened version of Cervantes’s monologic character, and thus how this weakened realness negatively a3ects Myshkin’s literary an- swerability. When the 45-year-old Prince Myshkin returns to Russia after spend- ing several years at a Swiss sanatorium, he 6nds himself at the center of attention, an attention that he never intended to have. -
The Struggle for Spiritual Supremacy: Dostoevsky's Philosophy Or History and Eschatology
Western Washington University Western CEDAR WWU Honors Program Senior Projects WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship Spring 1994 The Struggle for Spiritual Supremacy: Dostoevsky's Philosophy or History and Eschatology Andrew Wender Western Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors Part of the History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Wender, Andrew, "The Struggle for Spiritual Supremacy: Dostoevsky's Philosophy or History and Eschatology" (1994). WWU Honors Program Senior Projects. 339. https://cedar.wwu.edu/wwu_honors/339 This Project is brought to you for free and open access by the WWU Graduate and Undergraduate Scholarship at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in WWU Honors Program Senior Projects by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Struggle for Spiritual Supremacy: Dostoevsky's Philosophy or History and Eschatology Andrew Wender Presented to Prof. George Mariz and Prof. Susan Costanzo Project Advisers Honors 490 - Senior Project June 6, 1994 • ............._ Honors Program HONORS fflESIS In presenting this Honors Paper in partial requirements for a bachelor's degree at Western Washington University, I agree that the Library shall make its copies freely available for inspection. I further agree that extensive copying of this thesis is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood that any publication of this thesis for commercial pur:uoses or for financial eain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Bellingham, Washington 98225-9089 □ f2061 676-3034 An Equal Oppartunit_v University Table of Contents Page I. Introduction . 2 II. Historical Context And Intellectual Development or Dostoevsky's Philosophy or History .............................. -
Myshkin's Queer Failure: (Mis)Reading Masculinity in Dostoevsky's The
Doak, C. (2019). Myshkin’s queer failure: (Mis)reading masculinity in Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Slavic and East European Journal, 63(1), 1- 27. http://u.osu.edu/seej/63-1/doak/ Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record License (if available): Unspecified Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via Ohio State University at http://u.osu.edu/seej/63-1/doak/. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ SEEJ_63_1_1Y 4/4/2019 8:29 PM Page 1 ARTICLES MYSHKIN’S QUEER FAILURE: (MIS)READING MASCULINITY IN DOSTOEVSKII’S THE IDIOT Connor Doak, University of Bristol “[P]aradise is a difficult thing, Prince, much harder than it appears to your beautiful heart.” Prince Shch., The Idiot (282)1 “Privilege the naïve or nonsensical.” Jack Halberstam, The Queer Art of Failure (12)2 Of all Dostoevskii’s heroes, Prince Myshkin of The Idiot (1868–69) has proved particularly divisive. Some see him as the “wholly good man” (PSS 28.2: 251) whom Dostoevskii described in his notebooks, an embodiment of kindness who ingenuously speaks the truth.3 Yet as others point out, Mysh- kin’s combination of goodness and sincerity not only causes bewilderment in St. -
Further Glance
chapter 4 Secular Grace: Further Glance Now it is possible to gather up all the parts, ideas and characteristics discussed so far, to combine them into one picture, rich and complex, and to present a developed version of secular grace. But its meaning still requires further clarification and illustration. First, the question arises of how a concept of secular grace may be given a real manifestation in the life of a concrete person. One possible answer to that will be given here with a literary character: Prince Myshkin, the hero of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Another illustration, in a com- pletely different way, is presented by examining two borderline cases, which stretch that concept to its limits and raise two intricate questions: Can there be a secular grace-relation with the dead, and can there be a secular grace- relation with oneself. This chapter will suggest answers to that. A Secular Grace in Prose In what follows, I shall argue that the issue of grace is the main subject of Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot,1 and the hero of that novel – which describes a kind of Russian Jesus – is a quintessential example (with one important reservation) of a man who chose the way of secular grace and maintains grace- relations with many characters. (a) The Grace-Path of Prince Myshkin The Idiot provides quite a few examples of characters that are charitable to- wards others. One example is Pavlishchev, who raised the prince after his parent’s death, and acted generously towards others as well; another example is an old man who used to help criminals and bestow them with warmth, mon- ey and non-judgmental listening. -
Diagnosing Prince Myshkin
Swarthmore College Works Russian Faculty Works Russian Fall 2012 Diagnosing Prince Myshkin Brian R. Johnson Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian Part of the Slavic Languages and Societies Commons Let us know how access to these works benefits ouy Recommended Citation Brian R. Johnson. (2012). "Diagnosing Prince Myshkin". Slavic And East European Journal. Volume 56, Issue 3. 377-393. https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian/212 This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Russian Faculty Works by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages DIAGNOSING PRINCE MYSHKIN Author(s): Brian R. Johnson Source: The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 56, No. 3 (FALL 2012), pp. 377-393 Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41698559 Accessed: 19-08-2016 17:49 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Slavic and East European Journal This content downloaded from 130.58.88.100 on Fri, 19 Aug 2016 17:49:43 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms DIAGNOSING PRINCE MYSHKIN Brian Johnson, Swarthmore College Dedicated in memory of James L. -
Edward Wasiolek, Ed. CRITICAL ESSAYS on TOLSTOY Boston: G
Edward Wasiolek, ed. CRITICAL ESSAYS ON TOLSTOY Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986. Pp. 200, $35.00 Reviewed by Vasa D. Mihailovich Relatively modest in size yet containing some of the most important essays on Leo Tolstoy, both translated from Russian and written in English, this collection offers a wide spectrum of opinions on the great Russian master, both the man and the writer. The book is divided into five uneven sections: Biography, Reminiscences, and Reception; Early stories; War and Peace; Anna Karenina; and Late Novels. The biographical segment, as well as those on early stories and late novels, are overshadowed, understandably, by the critical examination of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Each section of criticism contains full-length articles and essavs as well as reviews. Some of the latter are brief or extracted, yet the editor has skillfully selected pertinent passages that touch upon the most salient features of the work in question. The choice of the authors represented shows an equally wide spectrum that illuminates Tolstoy from many angles. In one section, for example, we find pieces by Henry James, Lenin, Virginia Woolf, and Maxim Gorky—juxtaposed in that order. Even though such eclecticism may give the impression of artificial versatility, it nevertheless affords a multi-faceted picture of a writer of such stature as Tolstoy that is the only satisfactory one. Other notable critics included are Chernishevsky, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Merezhkovsky, Eikhenbaum, Percy Lubbock, E. M. Forster, Isaiah Berlin, George Steiner, Matthew Arnold, Lionel Trilling, and the editor of the book himself, Wasiolek. Undoubtedly, some other notables could have been included or used as substitutes, but that is the fate of a collection of this kind. -
The Russian Cinematic Culture
Russian Culture Center for Democratic Culture 2012 The Russian Cinematic Culture Oksana Bulgakova Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/russian_culture Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons, and the Slavic Languages and Societies Commons Repository Citation Bulgakova, O. (2012). The Russian Cinematic Culture. In Dmitri N. Shalin, 1-37. Available at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/russian_culture/22 This Article is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Article in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/ or on the work itself. This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Russian Culture by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Russian Cinematic Culture Oksana Bulgakova The cinema has always been subject to keen scrutiny by Russia's rulers. As early as the beginning of this century Russia's last czar, Nikolai Romanov, attempted to nationalize this new and, in his view, threatening medium: "I have always insisted that these cinema-booths are dangerous institutions. Any number of bandits could commit God knows what crimes there, yet they say the people go in droves to watch all kinds of rubbish; I don't know what to do about these places." [1] The plan for a government monopoly over cinema, which would ensure control of production and consumption and thereby protect the Russian people from moral ruin, was passed along to the Duma not long before the February revolution of 1917. -
Apocalyptic Imagery in Dostoevskij's the Idiot and the Devils
William J. Leatherbarrow aPoCalyPtiC imagery in dostoevskij’s The IdIoT and The devIls Dostoevskij’s period of penal servitude in Siberia, amongst the lowest depths of criminal humanity, wrought a decisive change in both his personality and his art. His estrangement from naive utopianism, from the belief that human nature was capable of sustaining a paradise on earth, whether erected upon a rational, moral or social order, was caused, or at least accelerated, by this profound personal experience. It is to this event, too, that we must ascribe Dostoevskij’s development as a Christian artist in the years following his return from Siberia. Robert L. Jackson has argued that Dostoevskij’s fictional memoirs of his prison experiences, Notes from the House of the Dead (1860), are “the pivotal literary and spiritual work in Dostoevsky’s writing career” and “a kind of programmatic statement of a Christian poetics of insight and transfiguration,” which becomes the binding vision of Dostoevskij’s mature fiction.1 Parallel to Dostoevskij’s emergence as a Christian writer is his developing use of Christian mythology, symbolism and allegory in the works written after The House of the Dead. His commitment to a Christian ideal was expressed in the weaving of Christian motifs into the fabric of his art. Thus the conversion of Raskol’nikov is implicitly likened to the raising of Lazarus; Dostoevskij’s ethical ideal, the “positively good man,” Prince Myškin, is developed as a latter-day Christ; an attack on the intellectual contagion of Russia’s radicals is couched in the parable of the Gadarene swine (The Devils); and the family drama of the Karamazovs is a microcosm of metaphysical conflicts. -
Shakespeare's Sonnets in Russian
Shakespeare’s Sonnets in Russian: The Challenge of Translation Elena Rassokhina Umeå Studies in Language and Literature 37 Department of Language Studies Umeå University 2017 Department of Language Studies Umeå University SE-901 87 Umeå http://www.sprak.umu.se This work is protected by the Swedish Copyright Legislation (Act 1960:729) © 2017 Elena Rassokhina ISBN: 978-91-7601-681-7 Front cover illustration: Elena Rassokhina, Aleksei Zakharov, Anja Rassokhina Electronic version accessible via http://umu.diva-portal.org/ Umeå Studies in Language and Literature 37 Printed by: Print & media, Umeå University Distributed by: eddy.se ab, Visby Umeå, Sweden 2017 To study Shakespeare in translation is just another way to find him. Ton Hoenselaars The translation of verse is impossible. Every time is an exception. Samuil Marshak Table of Contents Table of Contents i Abstract iii List of Articles v Acknowledgements vii A note on transliteration and translation ix Preface 1 1. Introduction 3 1.1. Shakespeare’s sonnets as a Russian literary phenomenon 3 1.2. Objectives of the research and methodology 5 1.3. Disposition of the thesis 6 1.4. Sources and limitations 7 1.5. Critical studies of the sonnets and their translations into Russian 8 1.6. Theoretical background 11 1.6.1. Translation and norms 11 1.6.2. Translation as rewriting 12 1.6.3. Translations and retranslations 13 1.6.4. Translatability and poetic translation 17 2. The context of Shakespeare’s sonnets 25 2.1. The sonnets and translation competence 25 2.2. Date of composition and the author’s intentions 26 2.3.