DOCSLIB.ORG

Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy Illusion and Instrument: Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy By Chloe Susan Liebmann Kitzinger A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Irina Paperno, Chair Professor Eric Naiman Professor Dorothy J. Hale Spring 2016 Illusion and Instrument: Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy © 2016 By Chloe Susan Liebmann Kitzinger Abstract Illusion and Instrument: Problems of Mimetic Characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy by Chloe Susan Liebmann Kitzinger Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures University of California, Berkeley Professor Irina Paperno, Chair This dissertation focuses new critical attention on a problem central to the history and theory of the novel, but so far remarkably underexplored: the mimetic illusion that realist characters exist independently from the author’s control, and even from the constraints of form itself. How is this illusion of “life” produced? What conditions maintain it, and at what points does it start to falter? My study investigates the character-systems of three Russian realist novels with widely differing narrative structures — Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1865–1869), and Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880) — that offer rich ground for exploring the sources and limits of mimetic illusion. I suggest, moreover, that Tolstoy and Dostoevsky themselves were preoccupied with this question. Their novels take shape around ambitious projects of characterization that carry them toward the edges of the realist tradition, where the novel begins to give way to other forms of art and thought. Reaching beyond the sway of the illusions their novels cast, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky thus each raise questions about where that illusion comes from and how far it extends. My analyses trace the fault lines within techniques that at once intensify the impression of a populated, self-contained fictional world, and push readers past its formal and generic bounds. Chapter One deals with techniques of mimetic characterization rooted in the stable omniscient narrative of Tolstoy’s major novels, and in particular War and Peace. I survey the narrative devices cultivating the illusion that the characters of War and Peace live independently of device, dependent on persistent contrasts throughout the novel’s system of named characters. An unconventional problem taxes this system past its limits: how to represent the lives of the crowds of unnamed figures tangential to the narrative, but ever more central to Tolstoy’s conception of his mimetic project. I suggest that War and Peace’s notorious digressions are an attempt, in part, to work out a logic of representation beyond the novelistic character-system. Chapters Two and Three consider Dostoevsky’s techniques of characterization, cut off from the dual anchor of Tolstoy’s: the social order of “landowner literature,” and the narrative and mimetic order of omniscience. The Adolescent illustrates the formal chaos this condition creates, suggesting the fullness of its characters’ lives just by the degree to which the language of its illegitimate, incompetent narrator-hero appears to screen them. In The Brothers Karamazov, destabilizing methods of characterization invite a kind of transcendence. Each Karamazov, left to 1 negotiate his “own” fluid position in relation to a family identity, opens a site for a redemptive narrative of religious experience for which the secular forms of the nineteenth century Anglo- European novel must be reworked. But the mythical sweep of this narrative is threatened by the textbound character-system that structures the Karamazovs’ plot. Like Tolstoy’s, Dostoevsky’s late novels thus evidence a distrust of the limitations of novel form and mimetic character, balanced only precariously with techniques that fit the novel genre for a new kind of story. Chapter Four examines the place of Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s characters in the seminal novel theories of Mikhail Bakhtin and Georg Lukács. I argue that both theorists inherited a paradox from the novels they analyze. The “living” novelistic character bears moral, political, and social significance for Lukács and Bakhtin (as for the theory of the novel that developed in their wake). But read closely, their theories consistently link that effect of “life” with attributes of the novel as a self-sufficient and self-contained aesthetic form. Bakhtin and Lukács thus open rather than resolve the tension this dissertation explores, between the compellingly constructed illusion of a character’s independent “life,” and the dream — written into Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s novels themselves — of making that illusion into a path leading out from the fictional text. Exploring the lifelike quality of Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s characters as a product of language and aesthetic experience, I aim to illuminate more fully the inviting but uncertain passage between the realist novel and its readers’ world. 2 Table of Contents Acknowledgements ..........................................................................................................................iii Introduction 1. Illusion and instrument: A paradox of reading mimetic character ........................................ 1 2. Mimesis and the Russian realist novel ................................................................................... 7 3. Russian transformations of European character-systems ...................................................... 14 4. Problems of mimetic characterization in Dostoevsky and Tolstoy ....................................... 20 5. Levin’s vault .......................................................................................................................... 25 Section I: Tolstoy Chapter One — “There, that’s me!”: The Discontent of Character in Tolstoy’s War and Peace 1. Approaching the character-system of War And Peace: Dinner at the English Club ............... 28 2. Unfolding the character-system of War And Peace: Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s salon ............ 34 3. Intensifying the illusion: Major protagonists and mimetic life ................................................ 43 4. Solidifying the illusion: Family-names and the distribution of mimetic life ........................... 54 5. Fragmenting the illusion: Minor characters and mimetic life .................................................. 60 6. Expanding the illusion: Marginal characters and mimetic life ................................................ 72 7. “Two, two!”: The discontent of character in War and Peace .................................................. 85 Section II: Dostoevsky Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 89 Chapter Two — Arkady’s Overcoat: Character and the Conditions of Envy in Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 96 1. “Forgive me for having cut short my life’s debut!”: The chaos of The Adolescent’s character-system .................................................................................................................... 99 2. “I have, my dear, one favorite Russian writer”: The envy of The Adolescent’s characters ... 108 Chapter Three — “Not you”: Character and the Conditions of Transcendence in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov 1. “From the author”: Narrator and hero in The Brothers Karamazov ........................................ 117 2. “Your whole Karamazov question”: The character-system of The Brothers Karamazov ....... 119 3. “all his life, Fyodor Pavlovich was fond of play-acting”: The Karamazov family and karamazovshchina ........................................................................................................................ 127 4. “You, Alyoshka, are the quiet type. .”: Alyosha as Karamazov ............................................ 131 5. “a scoundrel, but not a thief, not a thief, anything you like, but not a thief” — “It was not you who killed father”: Mitya as not-thief and Ivan as not-murderer .......................................... 139 6. “I am [the] murderer, not Karamazov”: Smerdyakov as not-Karamazov ............................... 151 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 159 i Section III: Novel Theory Chapter Four — Lives in Theory: Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s Characters in Bakhtin and Lukács Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 162 1. Voice and image: Dostoevsky’s and Tolstoy’s characters in early Bakhtin ............................ 166 2. Problems of reflection: Tolstoy’s and Dostoevsky’s characters in later Lukács ..................... 182 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 197 Coda ................................................................................................................................................... 200 Works Cited .....................................................................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Inflationary and Deflationary Characterization in the Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah
    CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE): E-Journals Research on Humanities and Social Sciences www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online) Vol.3, No.17, 2013 Inflationary and Deflationary Characterization in the Novels of Ayi Kwei Armah Peace Ibala Amala Ph.D. Department of English, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Abstract It is a truism of course, that much of the pleasure of contemporary readers comes from the study of characters. For every literary work is an artistic response of the perception of man and his society. The purpose of this paper is to examine how Ayi Kwei Armah employs the Inflationary and deflationary technique of characterization which is shown to be his foremost stylistic method in his novels. Armah does so by revealing that his technique is a means of objective correlative, meaningful within the African society. Armah’s technique as this study reveals brings to the fore that characters who perpetrate corruption and the destructiveness inherent in the African continent are deflated. And morally upright characters are presented in the inflationary mode. Introduction It is common critical knowledge that the basis of fictional writingis character creation, perhaps nothing else. Characters not only add depth and complexity to the novels by giving readers perspectives of situations, but keep the readers engaged at all times. Armah is one of the African novelists that has continually captivated his readers for the experimental quality of his literary output (Wright 12, Obiechina 53, Folarin 117, Fraser ix ); the yardstick of experimentation in African fiction (Ogungbesan 68 ).
    [Show full text]
  • War & Peace by Helen Edmundson
    War & Peace by Helen Edmundson from the novel by Leo Tolstoy Education Pack by Gillian King Photo: Alistair Muir | Rehearsal Photography: Ellie Kurttz | Designed by www.stemdesign.co.uk Contents • The Pack........................................................................................... 03 • Shared Experience Expressionism.............................................................. 04 • Summary of War & Peace........................................................................ 05 • Helen Edmundson on the Adaptation Process................................................. 07 • Ideas inspired by the research trip to Russia................................................. 08 • Tolstoy’s Russia.................................................................................... 09 • Leo Tolstoy Biography............................................................................. 10 • Playing the Subtext................................................................................ 12 • What do I Want? (exploring character intentions)............................................ 14 • Napoleon’s 1812 Campaign in Russia........................................................... 17 • The Battle - Created through the Actors’ Physicality......................................... 19 • The Ensemble Process............................................................................ 20 • Russian Women...................................................................................... 22 • Is Man Nothing More Than a Puppet?..........................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Generate PDF of This Page
    Institute of National Remembrance https://ipn.gov.pl/en/news/4412,It-was-good-to-fight-for-Poland.html 2021-09-25, 16:52 12.08.2020 “It was good to fight for Poland!” We encourage you to read an article written by President of the IPN Jarosław Szarek, Ph.D. for the "Rzeczpospolita" newspaper. “We have the whole world against us” wrote Stanisław Posner in a report for Józef Piłsudski, submitted end of June 1920, after travelling through Western European countries. During his several-week expedition, he visited a few capital cities and returned with observations free of any hope, on the day preceding the breakout of decisive battles in the east. Posner highlighted that even those who had been siding with Poland, such as French President Alexandre Millerand, assuring of his support for Warsaw in the conflict with the Czechs ,“is siding with them and, in other matters, will always submit to the opinion of England, because he depends on her as a creditor. What can I say about the others? The issue of compensation, the issue of Gdańsk, the issue of the plebiscites – are worse than ever.” The following weeks confirmed these observations. Even among recent sympathisers of Poland’s cause there was no shortage of those observing with indifference our battle with Bolshevism, interested, at most, in taking as much as they could for themselves. The year 1920 did not just mean the struggle with Bolshevism, but also a clash with the indifference and reluctance from the West. Hence the assistance we received from those willing to help us at this dramatic time was even more valuable.
    [Show full text]
  • Virginia Woolf's Portraits of Russian Writers
    Virginia Woolf’s Portraits of Russian Writers Virginia Woolf’s Portraits of Russian Writers: Creating the Literary Other By Darya Protopopova Virginia Woolf’s Portraits of Russian Writers: Creating the Literary Other By Darya Protopopova This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Darya Protopopova All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-2753-0 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-2753-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Note on the Text ........................................................................................ vi Preface ...................................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Russia and the British Search for the Cultural ‘Other’ Chapter One .............................................................................................. 32 Woolf’s Real and Fictional Russians Chapter Two ............................................................................................. 58 Woolf and Dostoevsky: Verbalising the Soul Chapter Three ........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • University of Maryland Commencement May 22, 2020
    University of Maryland Commencemenmay 22, 2020 Table of Contents CONGRATULATIONS BACHELOR’S DEGREES From the President 1 Agriculture and Natural Resources, From the Alumni Association President 2 College of 24 Architecture, Planning and SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES Preservation, School of 25 Graduating Student Speaker 4 Arts and Humanities, College of 25 University Medalists 5 Behavioral and Social Sciences, Honorary Degree Recipients 7 College of 29 Commencement Speaker 9 Business, Robert H. Smith School of 35 Computer, Mathematical, and DOCTORAL DEGREES 10 Natural Sciences, College of 42 Education, College of 48 MASTER’S DEGREES 15 Engineering, A. James Clark School of 49 Graduate Certificates 22 Information Studies, College of 52 Journalism, Philip Merrill College of 53 Public Health, School of 54 Public Policy, School of 56 THE “DO GOOD” CAMPUS Undergraduate Studies 56 Certificate Programs 56 The University of Maryland commits to becoming HONORS COLLEGE, CITATION AND a global leader in advancing social innovation, NOTATION PROGRAMS, AND ACADEMIC AND SPECIAL AWARDS philanthropy and nonprofit leadership with its Do Honors College 57 Good Campus. CIVICUS 59 College Park Scholars 59 Beyond the Classroom 62 Our Do Good Campus effort amplifies the power of Federal Fellows 62 Terps as agents of social innovation and supports First-Year Innovation and Research Experience 62 the university’s mission of service. We’re working to Global Communities 63 ensure all University of Maryland students graduate Global Fellows 63 equipped and motivated to do good in their careers, Hinman CEOs 63 Immigration and Migration Studies 63 their communities and the world. Jiménez-Porter Writers’ House 63 Language House 63 Ronald E.
    [Show full text]
  • The Idea of Mimesis: Semblance, Play, and Critique in the Works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W
    DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences 8-2012 The idea of mimesis: Semblance, play, and critique in the works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno Joseph Weiss DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd Recommended Citation Weiss, Joseph, "The idea of mimesis: Semblance, play, and critique in the works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno" (2012). College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 125. https://via.library.depaul.edu/etd/125 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Idea of Mimesis: Semblance, Play, and Critique in the Works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy October, 2011 By Joseph Weiss Department of Philosophy College of Liberal Arts and Sciences DePaul University Chicago, Illinois 2 ABSTRACT Joseph Weiss Title: The Idea of Mimesis: Semblance, Play and Critique in the Works of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno Critical Theory demands that its forms of critique express resistance to the socially necessary illusions of a given historical period. Yet theorists have seldom discussed just how much it is the case that, for Walter Benjamin and Theodor W.
    [Show full text]
  • Animals Liberation Philosophy and Policy Journal Volume 5, Issue 2
    AAnniimmaallss LLiibbeerraattiioonn PPhhiilloossoopphhyy aanndd PPoolliiccyy JJoouurrnnaall VVoolluummee 55,, IIssssuuee 22 -- 22000077 Animal Liberation Philosophy and Policy Journal Volume 5, Issue 2 2007 Edited By: Steven Best, Chief Editor ____________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS Lev Tolstoy and the Freedom to Choose One’s Own Path Andrea Rossing McDowell Pg. 2-28 Jewish Ethics and Nonhuman Animals Lisa Kemmerer Pg. 29-47 Deliberative Democracy, Direct Action, and Animal Advocacy Stephen D’Arcy Pg. 48-63 Should Anti-Vivisectionists Boycott Animal-Tested Medicines? Katherine Perlo Pg. 64-78 A Note on Pedagogy: Humane Education Making a Difference Piers Bierne and Meena Alagappan Pg. 79-94 BOOK REVIEWS _________________ Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, by Eric Schlosser (2005) Reviewed by Lisa Kemmerer Pg. 95-101 Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust, by Charles Patterson (2002) Reviewed by Steven Best Pg. 102-118 The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to PETA, by Norm Phelps (2007) Reviewed by Steven Best Pg. 119-130 Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume V, Issue 2, 2007 Lev Tolstoy and the Freedom to Choose One’s Own Path Andrea Rossing McDowell, PhD It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion about them. On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever. -- Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1988) Committed to the idea that the lives of humans and animals are inextricably linked, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828–1910) promoted—through literature, essays, and letters—the animal world as another venue in which to practice concern and kindness, consequently leading to more peaceful, consonant human relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Dostoevsky's Ideal
    Student Publications Student Scholarship Fall 2015 Dostoevsky’s Ideal Man Paul A. Eppler Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Philosophy Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Eppler, Paul A., "Dostoevsky’s Ideal Man" (2015). Student Publications. 395. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/395 This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/ 395 This open access student research paper is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Dostoevsky’s Ideal Man Abstract This paper aimed to provide a comprehensive examination of the "ideal" Dostoevsky human being. Through comparison of various characters and concepts found in his texts, a kenotic individual, one who is undifferentiated in their love for all of God's creation, was found to be the ultimate to which Dostoevsky believed man could ascend. Keywords Dostoevsky, Christianity, Kenoticism Disciplines Philosophy Comments This paper was written for Professor Vernon Cisney's course, PHIL 368: Reading- Dostoevsky, Fall 2015. This student research paper is available at The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ student_scholarship/395 Dostoevsky’s Ideal Man Paul Eppler Professor Vernon Cisney Reading Dostoevsky I affirm that I have upheld the highest principles of honesty and integrity in my academic work and have not witnessed a violation of the Honor Code.
    [Show full text]
  • Unpalatable Pleasures: Tolstoy, Food, and Sex
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Scholarship Languages, Literatures, and Cultures 1993 Unpalatable Pleasures: Tolstoy, Food, and Sex Ronald D. LeBlanc University of New Hampshire - Main Campus, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/lang_facpub Recommended Citation Rancour-Laferriere, Daniel. Tolstoy’s Pierre Bezukhov: A Psychoanalytic Study. London: Bristol Classical Press, 1993. Critiques: Brett Cooke, Ronald LeBlanc, Duffield White, James Rice. Reply: Daniel Rancour- Laferriere. Volume VII, 1994, pp. 70-93. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Scholarship by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEW ~·'T'::'1r"'T,n.1na rp.llHlrIP~ a strict diet. There needs to'be a book about food. L.N. Tolstoy times it seems to me as if the Russian is a sort of lost soul. You want to do and yet you can do nothing. You keep thinking that you start a new life as of tomorrow, that you will start a new diet as of tomorrow, but of the sort happens: by the evening of that 'very same you have gorged yourself so much that you can only blink your eyes and you cannot even move your tongue. N.V. Gogol Russian literature is mentioned, one is likely to think almost instantly of that robust prose writer whose culinary, gastronomic and alimentary obsessions--in his verbal art as well as his own personal life-­ often reached truly gargantuan proportions.
    [Show full text]
  • International Journal of Computer Science & Information Security
    IJCSIS Vol. 13 No. 5, May 2015 ISSN 1947-5500 International Journal of Computer Science & Information Security © IJCSIS PUBLICATION 2015 Pennsylvania, USA JCSI I S ISSN (online): 1947-5500 Please consider to contribute to and/or forward to the appropriate groups the following opportunity to submit and publish original scientific results. CALL FOR PAPERS International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security (IJCSIS) January-December 2015 Issues The topics suggested by this issue can be discussed in term of concepts, surveys, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas. See authors guide for manuscript preparation and submission guidelines. Indexed by Google Scholar, DBLP, CiteSeerX, Directory for Open Access Journal (DOAJ), Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE), SCIRUS, Scopus Database, Cornell University Library, ScientificCommons, ProQuest, EBSCO and more. Deadline: see web site Notification: see web site Revision: see web site Publication: see web site Context-aware systems Agent-based systems Networking technologies Mobility and multimedia systems Security in network, systems, and applications Systems performance Evolutionary computation Networking and telecommunications Industrial systems Software development and deployment Evolutionary computation Knowledge virtualization
    [Show full text]
  • Living with Death: the Humanity in Leo Tolstoy's Prose Dr. Patricia A. Burak Yuri Pavlov
    Living with Death: The Humanity in Leo Tolstoy’s Prose A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Renée Crown University Honors Program at Syracuse University Liam Owens Candidate for Bachelor of Science in Biology and Renée Crown University Honors Spring 2020 Honors Thesis in Your Major Thesis Advisor: _______________________ Dr. Patricia A. Burak Thesis Reader: _______________________ Yuri Pavlov Honors Director: _______________________ Dr. Danielle Smith, Director Abstract What do we fear so uniquely as our own death? Of what do we know less than the afterlife? Leo Tolstoy was quoted saying: “We can only know that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.” Knowing nothing completely contradicts the essence of human nature. Although having noted the importance of this unknowing, using the venture of creative fiction, Tolstoy pined ceaselessly for an understanding of the experience of dying. Tolstoy was afraid of death; to him it was an entity which loomed. I believe his early involvements in war, as well as the death of his brother Dmitry, and the demise of his self-imaged major character Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, whom he tirelessly wrote and rewrote—where he dove into the supposed psyche of a dying man—took a toll on the author. Tolstoy took the plight of ending his character’s life seriously, and attempted to do so by upholding his chief concern: the truth. But how can we, as living, breathing human beings, know the truth of death? There is no truth we know of it other than its existence, and this alone is cause enough to scare us into debilitating fits and ungrounded speculation.
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzschean Types in the Brothers Karamazov ​ 139817 –Dr
    Copyright is owned by the Author of the thesis. Permission is given for a copy to be downloaded by an individual for the purpose of research and private study only. The thesis may not be reproduced elsewhere without the permission of the Author. Patrick Durkin Nietzschean Types in The Brothers Karamazov ​ 139817 –Dr. William Angus th 11 ​ February 2019 ​ For the Masters of Arts, English Durkin 1 Abstract Nietzsche and Dostoevsky were contemporaries, and Nietzsche especially was known to admire Dostoevsky’s work. Both authors were interested in the study of the basis for human morality, and the search for a redirection of human morality; one in which the problems they saw with the current understanding of acceptable behaviour according to laws, religion and might is right, could be melded in with their own beliefs and struggles with their own mortality and morality. Although Nietzsche’s collection of essays The Genealogy of Morals, (1887) was ​ ​ written 7 years after Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1880), it is interesting to ​ ​ note that the main character types that Nietzsche believed created hierarchies that developed and sustained the morality of his time, appear in the form of the main characters in The Brothers Karamazov. ​ ​ This thesis will be looking at the The Brothers Karamazov through the different ​ ​ character ‘types’ and the resulting psychomachia of the three legitimate brothers, the older brothers Dmitri and Ivan, and especially that of Alyosha, the youngest brother. The thesis will focus on both elder brothers’ evolution of thought and action through the progress of the novel, and, importantly, on each brothers’ interactions with Alyosha and the turbulent state of mind they regularly leave their younger sibling in.
    [Show full text]