DOCSLIB.ORG

Works by F.M. Dostoyevsky on Drama and Music Stage

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Works by F.M. Dostoyevsky on Drama and Music Stage View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Siberian Federal University Digital Repository Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 1 (2014 7) 43-49 ~ ~ ~ УДК 792.09 Works by F.M. Dostoyevsky on Drama and Music Stage Svetlana G. Voitkevich* Krasnoyarsk State Academy of Music and Theatre 22 Lenin Str., Krasnoyarsk, 660049 Russia Received 19.03.2013, received in revised form 18.03.2013, accepted 16.08.2013 This article is devoted to the works by F.M. Dostoyevsky which found original embodiment in Russian music and theatre of Russia in the last third of the XX – early XXI centuries. The research marks historical stages of formation and development of Russian theatre life, reveals the character of each stage in connection with the main tendencies of time. Due to the historical approach it becomes possible to notice the peculiarities of opera genre, the reasons for emergence of certain genres. Moreover, the research presents the difference in interpreting plots by Dostoyevsky in drama and music theatres. It is an attempt to justify the reasons of actual continuity and relevance of the writer’s prose on opera and drama stages in one of the hardest periods in the history of Russia and nowadays. In order to expand № страницы, правый (левый) БЫЛО НАДО the field of research, it also covers a series of operaстолбец pieces, № строки by modern authors which have not been exposed to research yet. Пример KantorV.K. Kantor V.K. С.47 Список, литературы, № 4. Keywords: Dostoyevsky, opera, drama theatre, prose,С.47 music. Список, литературы, № 4 filisofii filosofii после // In the history of world culture there are some names and phenomena which do not lose their essentiality with every decade, but, on the opposite, gain more importance, significance and meaning, becoming a certain spiritual milestone for the next generations. Among such, there are works by great Russian writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, the name, which, together with A.S. Pushkin, P.I. Tchaikovsky, V. Pe r o v. A Lifetime Portrait o f F. M . Dostoyevsky (1872) S.V. Rakhmaninov has become one of the symbols of Russia. In Russian literature it is hard to find an author who would attract so much interest of researchers. However, it does not decrease each time discovering something new, not found the interest for the prose by the author of “The by anyone else. Demons”, inspiring researchers to turn to the The sincerity of Dostoyevsky, philosophical books by F.M. Dostoyevsky over and over again, and ethical profoundness of his works, aspiration © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved * Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] – 43 – Svetlana G. Voitkevich. Works by F.M. Dostoyevsky on Drama and Music Stage for observing human in all the diversity caused oratorio “The Grand Inquisitor” by B. Blacker, the interest of the XX century art for the prose 1942; “The Karamazovs” by P. Kenen, 1945), by the “great griever for the Russian nation”. The “The House of the Dead” (1928, L. Janáček special corresponding bond between the modern “From the House of the Dead”), “Uncle’s Dream” time and the artistic world of the writer gets (“Engagement in a Dream” by H. Krása, 1933) stronger and stronger. In our opinion, it happens and others. because the works of the great Russian humanist, It would be relevant to mention that in the as if they were a specific model of the world, beginning of the XX century in Germany, and embody the spiritual strivings of the epoch, then in France, there appears and rapidly develops moral searches of the contemporaries. Moreover, one of the largest philosophical branches, known the problems outlined by F.M. Dostoyevsky in as existentialism. The problems studied by the his novels and essays become more and more representatives of this branch were concentrated topical with time. It is witnessed not only by around questions about human: trueness of his multiple studies of philosophers, theosophists earthly life; suffering on being “abandoned” in and theorists of literature, but also by regular the world, desire to identify himself; realization theatre performances, film versions of the of freedom and responsibility, and, consequently, writer’s novels, and the experience of turning to setting the question about God and what freedom his plots accumulated by Russian opera theatre actually is. The origins of this study were initiated during the XX – early XXI centuries. The present and literally imported to the West by two Russian article is dedicated to an attempt of spotlighting philosophers, L. Shestov and N.A. Berdyaev some aspects of interaction between the literary who were among the first researchers of world of F.M. Dostoyevsky and modern theatre F.M. Dostoyevsky. Following the Russian practice. thinkers, existentialists from France and Germany The name of F.M. Dostoyevsky entered the also turned to the works by this great Russian world of music dramaturgy in the beginning of writer, trying to discover and reveal the human the XX century due to the opera by S.S. Prokofiev. personality, the problem of its being “enrooted” Written in 1916, “The Gambler” anticipated the in the world. For religious existentialists it was search of the new generation musicians “for also significant that Dostoyevsky “was the first theatricalization of opera and renewal of its to show and reveal the common European evil intonation pattern” (Baeva, 1996: 14). In many ways which turned to be unconquered during the it was stimulated by the language of the writer’s centuries of Christian development. He wanted prose, the specific expressive intensiveness of the to cure evil with Christianity, believing that its way his characters speak, which was brilliantly influence has not yet pierced the mass of society” interpreted in music. However, the discovery of (Kantor, 2000: 32). Prokofiev was not continued in the works of his Complexity of moral and ethical problems contemporaries. Those were foreign composers specific for the prose of this Russian novelist and who expressed much more interest for the classic so close to the searches of West European culture, of Russian literature. They interpreted such turned out to be absolutely strange to the new pieces as “Crime and Punishment” (A. Pedrollo, audience which came to the theatre in the first same-name opera, 1926; “Raskolnikov” by H. post-revolutionary decades of the past century Sutermeister, 1947), “The Brothers Karamazov” and clearly formulated its social order. The studies (musical drama by O. Jeremiáš, 1927; dramatic of F.M. Dostoyevsky heritage were unnecessary – 44 – Svetlana G. Voitkevich. Works by F.M. Dostoyevsky on Drama and Music Stage during the Stalin era, when the author of of various opportunities of the genre were a immortal literature pieces was tagged as “socially reflection of the creative atmosphere which harmful”, “a political retrograde and traitor of the reigned in the country during the Khrushchev revolution”. As G.M. Fridlender writes, “there was Thaw. The changes which occurred in the no other Russian classic who was put into a more opera theatre of the 60s, were, first of all, tragic situation by Stalin regime” (Dostoyevsky, visible in the “big” opera genre. “Virinea” 1978: 5). The works of the author were gradually by S.M. Slonimsky, “The Defeat of the withdrawn from the school program together Squadron” by V.S. Gubarenko, “Intervention” with those by M.M. Bulgakov and A.P. Platonov, by V.A. Uspensky introduced Soviet audience O.E. Mandelstam and A.A. Akhmatova, to the character capable of overcoming moral S.A. Esenin and M.M. Zoshchenko. difficulties, trapped in the process of personal This attitude reflected the common art self-identification, sometimes even torn away situation of those times. Ideological pressure of the from the “revolutionarily thinking masses”. party, discussions of advantages and disadvantages Since that time the spheres of theatre, of opera performances at the gatherings of the cinematograph, journalism continued vibrating Central Committee followed by corresponding with the interest to the most significant pieces decrees published by “Pravda” newspaper brought of Western and Russian literature, reflecting Soviet opera to quite understandable stereotypes. the eternal problems of human being. Works by The plots of so-called “big literature” (except A.A. Blok and V.Ya. Bryusov, A.A. Akhmatova for operas by S.S. Prokofiev, D.D. Shostakovich and M.A. Bulgakov were re-read and re- and B.V. Asafyev) disappeared from opera interpreted, “Hamlet” by G.M. Kozintsev came practice. New opera characters were devoted out on screen. Russian theater pays more attention to one and the same (usually, revolutionary or to the problem of moral searches, personal life nationally patriotic) idea, were deprived of inner and family relations. In their performances contradictions or psychological ambiguity. Is it A.V. Efros, G.B. Volchek, M.A. Zakharov, still surprising that under such conditions books L.E. Kheifets turn to classics looking for the by F.M. Dostoyevsky were not demanded? The roots of the present, seeing it as a spiritual ally. main characters of “Crime and Punishment”, Theatre interpretations of M.M. Bulgakov, M.Yu. “The Demons”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “The Lermontov, A.S. Griboyedov, A.N. Ostrovsky, Adolescent” and other novels are personalities torn A.P. Chekhov and, of course, F.M. Dostoyevsky between God and devil, good and evil, limitless appear one after another. freedom and patience absolutely could not fit in As theatre critics of 60-70s notice, the name the framework of communistic understanding of the creator of “The Brothers Karamazov” what a true revolutionary character is like. appears on the theatre posters after a long period Accumulation of plot, drama, image and of oblivion.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Download the Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alan Myers, William
    The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Alan Myers, William Leatherbarrow, Oxford University Press, 2008, 0199536392, 9780199536399, 658 pages. The Idiot (1868), written under the appalling personal circumstances Dostoevsky endured while travelling in Europe, not only reveals the author's acute artistic sense and penetrating psychological insight, but also affords his most powerful indictment of a Russia struggling to emulate contemporary Europe while sinking under the weight of Western materialism. It is the portrait of nineteenth-century Russian society in which a "positively good man" clashes with the emptiness of a society that cannot accommodate his moral idealism. Meticulously faithful to the original, this new translation includes explanatory notes and a critical introduction by W.J. Leatherbarrow. About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.. DOWNLOAD HERE Dostoevsky's The Idiot A Critical Companion, Liza Knapp, 1998, Literary Criticism, 274 pages. This book is designed to guide readers through Dostoevsky's The Idiot, first published in 1869 and generally considered to be his most mysterious and confusing work. The volume .... Persuasion , Jane Austen, 1947, English fiction, 254 pages. The House of the Dead and Poor Folk , Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 2004, Fiction, 446 pages. In "The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky give vent to his perceptions of prison life, writing from his grueling experience in a Siberian camp, and introduces a gallery of boastful ...
    [Show full text]
  • Michael Makin Great Books 291 Five Lectures on Crime and Punishment
    Michael Makin Great Books 291 Five Lectures on Crime and Punishment You may find the following chronology, with links, of use in guiding your study of Dostoevsky’s novel F. M. Dostoevsky -- Chronology through 1866 1821 3 October, born, Moscow. Father -- Mikhail, doctor (son of priest), who had risen through service to acquire noble status; mother of merchant stock. Former Mariinskii Hospital for the Poor, Moscow, where FMD’s father worked as a doctor, at the time of FMD’s birth. 1825 [Death of Alexander I; accession of Nicholas I; Decembrist revolt.] 1826 [Death of Karamzin (born 1766), author of "Poor Liza" («Бедная Лиза», 1792), History of the Russian State (1818-26).] 1830 [Aleksandr Pushkin's Tales of Belkin, «Повести Белкина».] 1831 Dostoevskii family buys small estate at Darovoe, 150 miles from Moscow. 1833 FMD goes away to school. 1834 [Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", «Пиковая дама».] 1836 Death of mother. [Nikolai Gogol' (1809-52) publishes "The Nose", «Нос»] 1837 FMD goes to St Petersburg, enters Academy of Engineers, housed in the Mik- hailovskii Castle. [Death of Pushkin (born 1799), after a duel, partly as the result of a malicious conspiracy.] 1839 Death of father, possibly murdered. 1841 Promoted to ensign. Plans romantic tragedies. [Death of Mikhail Lermontov (born 1814).] 1842 [Gogol' publishes first part of Dead Souls («Мертвые души»), and "The Over- coat" («Шинель»).] 1844 First published work: a translation of Balzac's Eugénie Grandet. Work on Poor Folk. 1845 Completes Poor Folk («Бедные люди»), which is greeted ecstatically (prior to publication) by Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-1877), Dmitrii Grigorovich (1822-1900), and Vissarion Belinskii (1811-1848), leaders of liberal thought and writing, whose enthusiasm guarantees FMD popularity in their literary circles.
    [Show full text]
  • The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky Free
    FREE THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF DOSTOEVSKY PDF F. M. Dostoevsky,David Magarshack | 400 pages | 22 Mar 2001 | Random House USA Inc | 9780375756887 | English | New York, United States These Short Fan Fictions Put You In The Story Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in This post lists the Best Fyodor Dostoyevsky Novels and short stories. The Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky debut, the epistolary novella Poor Folkmade his name. From this experience came The House of the Dead In he began the journal Vremya Time. Already married, he fell in love with one of his contributors, Appollinaria Suslova, eighteen years his junior, and developed a ruinous passion for roulette. After the death of his first wife, Maria, inDostoyevsky completed Notes from Underground and began work towards Crime and Punishment He died in Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, wanders through the slums of St Petersburg and commits a random murder without remorse or regret. Raskolnikov imagines himself to be a great man, a Napoleon: acting for a higher purpose beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a suspicious police investigator, Raskolnikov is pursued by the growing voice of his conscience and finds the noose of his own guilt tightening around his neck. While his literary reputation rests mainly on such celebrated novels as Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot, Dostoyevsky also wrote much superb short fiction. The Double is one of the finest of his shorter works. It appeared in his second published work and is by far the most significant of his early stories, not least for its successful, straight-faced treatment of a hallucinatory theme.
    [Show full text]
  • THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Fyodor Dostoevsky
    THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV by Fyodor Dostoevsky THE AUTHOR Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born into a lower middle class family in Moscow, the son of a former army surgeon, and experienced a strict religious upbringing. His education was poor, and at age seventeen he entered a military engineering school that he found insufferably boring. He read voraciously in his spare time, and resigned from the military shortly after graduation to pursue a career as a writer. His first literary effort, Poor Folk, was published in 1845 to widespread critical acclaim. His succeeding efforts received little public attention, though through them he continued to polish his craft. In 1847, he joined one of the many secret societies that abounded in Russia during the repressive reign of Nicholas I. He found it exciting and thought its activities somewhat innocuous, but the czar did not agree. In 1849, Dostoevsky was arrested and, with several others of his circle, sentenced to be shot for sedition. The czar allowed preparations for the execution to continue to the very last moment before commuting the sentence. Dostoevsky was then exiled to Siberia for four years of hard labor, followed by six years as a common soldier in the army. In Siberia, the intense suffering he experienced made a deep impression that was later reflected in his most famous works; in addition, the relationships he developed with his fellow prisoners, most of whom were poor and uneducated, gave him a lifelong appreciation for the downtrodden of society. It was also during his years in Siberia that he was converted to the Christian faith.
    [Show full text]
  • Bog Znaet: the Ethics of Omniscience in Russian Narrative, 1845-1870 By
    Bog znaet: The Ethics of Omniscience in Russian Narrative, 1845-1870 By Thomas Henry James Dyne 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 C. Namwali Serpell Spring 2019 Bog znaet: The Ethics of Omniscience in Russian Narrative, 1845-1870 © 2019 By Thomas Henry James Dyne 1 Abstract Bog znaet: The Ethics of Omniscience in Russian Narrative, 1845-1870 by Thomas Henry James Dyne Doctor of Philosophy in Slavic Languages and Literatures University of California, Berkeley Professor Irina Paperno, Chair This dissertation examines how the narratives of Ivan Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Lev Tolstoy grapple with the consequences of their omniscience. Their narrators do not simply read minds and tell stories; they also become wrapped-up in the ethical implications of telling stories that require the reading of minds. In effect, they ask: what happens when narrators become godlike? Does the privilege of omniscience define—or disrupt—the novel’s ethical value? I argue that the phrase “God only knows” [Bog znaet] becomes the constant refrain of realist narrative, a performance of authority in the moment of divesting from it. In a series of close readings—from Turgenev’s early Sketches of a Hunter to his novel Fathers and Sons, from Dostoevsky’s first work Poor Folk to his late story “The Meek One,” and from Tolstoy’s earliest semi-autobiographical narrative experiments to the trilogy of novels Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth—I argue that the newly omniscient Russian narrator draws attention to the consequences of his gaze, highlighting the existence of a boundary in the moment he makes a display of crossing it, making sacrosanct the interior of the other in the process of laying it bare.
    [Show full text]
  • Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics
    Mikhail Bakhtin Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics Edited and Translated by Caryl Emerson Introduction by Wayne C. Booth Theory and History of Literature, Volume 8 Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics Theory and History of Literature Edited by Wlad Godzich and Jochen Schulte-Sasse Volume 1. Tzvetan Todorov Introduction to Poetics Volume 2. Hans Robert Jauss Toward an Aesthetic of Reception Volume 3. Hans Robert Jauss Aesthetic Experience and Literary Hermeneutics Volume 4. Peter Burger Theory of the Avant-Garde Volume 5. Vladimir Propp Theory and History of Folklore Volume 6. Edited by Jonathan Arac, Wlad Godzich, and Wallace Martin The Yale Critics: Deconstruction in America Volume 7. Paul de Man Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism 2nd ed., rev. Volume 8. Mikhail Bakhtin Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics Mikhail Bakh tin Edited and Translated by Caryl Emerson Introduction by Wayne C. Booth Theory and History of Literature, Volume 8 University of Minnesota Press E Minneapolis ; S: London Publication of this book was assisted by a grant from the publications program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. Copyright © 1984 by the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http:/ /www.upress.umn.edu Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Eighth Printing 1999 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Bakhtin, M. M. (Mikhail Mikhailovich), 1895-1975. Problems of Dostoevsky's poetics. (Theory and history of literature; v.
    [Show full text]
  • Dostoevsky's Use of Works of Art Yaroslav Agapov 0 A
    University of Alberta Landscape Representations in Dostoevsky's Works - Dostoevsky's Use of Works of Art Yaroslav Agapov 0 A thesis submitted to the Faculty oFGraduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Modem Languages and Cultural Studies Slavic Languages/Literatures Edmonton, Alberta Fall 1999 National Library Biblioiheque nationale of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON KtAON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive pennettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, dstribute or sell reproduire, peter, distribuer ou copies of hsthesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/fih, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent ttre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract Of all the authors writing about Dostoevsky, apparently no one paid special attention to his vision of nature. I have found over fa-ty relevant fragments in the stories and novels by the author and I believe they are the result of certain aesthetics that no one else at that epoch had, rather than a set of occasional borrowings "to fill the space".
    [Show full text]
  • FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: a Short Biography
    FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: A Short Biography SOMA DEBRAY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH NARAJOLE RAJ COLLEGE Post the East-Slavic Epics and Chronicles from the Middle Ages, literature of major note to flourish in Russia was during the 1830s, during the Age of Enlightenment. Poetry, prose and drama flourished, ushering in a Golden Age of Russian literature. Romanticism saw the birth of Vasily Zhukovsky, and Alexander Pushkin, the greatest poet of all times. Prose too flourished. Nikolai Gogol paved the way with his novels. Then came Ivan Turgenev who mastered both novels and short stories. The second half of the century witnessed the rise of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. Both earned international reputation very soon. Anton Chekhov established himself as a short story writer and a dramatist in the second half of the century. In November, 1821, Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow. He entered the world of literature through fairy tales and legends from early childhood. At about 15 he entered the Nikolayev Engineering Institute from where he graduated and began his professional life. Simultaneously he earned quite some extra bucks by translating books. In the mid-1840s he penned his first novel, Poor Folk. This gained him an early entry into the Saint Petersburg literary circles. One of these groups he belonged to was critical of the then Tsarist regime. He was sentenced to captured and sentenced to death, but was finally commuted. He spent four years in a Siberian prison camp, and then was exiled for six years of compulsory military service. Dostoyevsky was influenced by leading European writers and philosophers; primarily he was influenced by Plato, Pushkin, Gogol, Augustine, Shakespeare, Dickens, Balzac, Lermontov, Hugo, Poe, Cervantes, Herzen, Kant, Belinsky, Hegel, Schiller, Solovyov, DSE1T DOSTOEVSKY NINETEENTH CENTURY EUROPEAN REALISM FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: A Short Biography SOMA DEBRAY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH NARAJOLE RAJ COLLEGE Bakunin, Sand, Hoffman, and Mickiewicz.
    [Show full text]
  • A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS of the Bbofhees KARAMAZOV Appfiovki
    A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE BBOfHEES KARAMAZOV APPfiOVKi): Ka^or Professor nor Professor 'XL J Director of th ^ Department of English fiean of the Graduate School A STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North. Texas State College in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Karen Lindsey Bruckner, B. A. Denton, Texas May, 1959 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. REVELATION OF THEMS ............. 11 III. STRUCTURAL TECHNIQUES 31 I?. SCENE AID SITTING 48 V. REVELATION OF CHARACTER . 64 VI. RHTTEM AND SYMBOLIC REPETITION 78 VII. CONCLUSION ........ ..... 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY 110 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky had been preparing for the last and longest of his novels throughout most of his creative life. Ideas which reached full expression in The Brothers Karamazov had been developed in the author's mind even during his exile in Siberia. In 1877» Dostoyevsky discontinued his issuance of The Diary of a Writer, and told his readers that the discontinuation was to enable him to devote himself to an artistic work which "begs to b© expressed. During the summer of the same year, he visited th© villages of his childhood. In 1878 when his son died during his first epileptic seizure, Dostoyevsky sought solace in a monastery, where he learned much of the Russian >-v monk. His life while visiting the monastery, and the assuaging of his grief there, soon found expression in The 2 Brothers Karaaazov. Upon his return, Dostoyevsky began his final work, and the first installment of the serial publication of the novel appeared in Katkov's Russian Messenger in 1879• The last chapter was finished in I860.' "^Ernest Joseph Simmons, Dostoyevsky, the Making of a Novelist (London, 1950), p.
    [Show full text]
  • FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY's HISTORICAL CONCEPTIONS for RUSSIA by Marlene Struger, A.B. a Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate
    FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY'S HISTORICAL CONCEPTIONS FOR RUSSIA by Marlene Struger, A.B. A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School, Marquette University in Partial Fulfillment of the Re­ quirements for the Degree , of Master of Arts Milwaukee, Wisconsin July, 1965 PREFACE Fyodor Dostoevsky was considered bi his Russian contempora ries not only as a grea t literary figure, but above all a Russian national prophet. Since this l a tter aspect is largely neglected in the West, the present study is i ntended to disclose how his attitude towa rd Russian Orthodox Christ i anity influenced his historical conceptions for Russia. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Roman Smal-Stocki who, as a person and as g professor, inspired and encouraged my work. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. A BIOGRAPHICAL ~KETCH OF DOSTOEVSKY • • • 1 II. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF DOSTOEVSKY'S LIFE - SPAN . • • • . • • . .• 12 III. THE FUNDAMENTAL ROOTS OF DOSTOEVSKY'S HI STORICAL OPI NIONS AND CONCEPTIONS: RUSSIAN ORTHODOXY . • • • • . • • • . 20 The Problem of Dostoevsky 's Religiosity The Ethical Ideal of Orthodoxy as a Justification ,for Russia's Leadership in the World · The Russian Orthodox Ethical Ideal as the Source of Reforms in Russia IV. DOSTOEVSKY'S CONCEPTIONS OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS IN RUSSIA . DURING HIS AGE •• • •.• 37 The Liberal He ritage as t he Cause of Ni hilism and Socialism in Russia Political Socialism: A Greater Threat than Nihilis~ V. FRANCE AS THE SCAPEGOAT OF DOSTOEVSKY'S ANTI - WESTERN SENTI MENT •••••• 69 France as the Vanguard of Papacy and Related European Problems The Russian Agrarian Commune in Contrast to Western Materialism VI.
    [Show full text]
  • Sample Pages
    About This Volume Rachel Stauffer ,Q WKLV YROXPH *ROGHQ$JH >5XVVLDQ ɡɨɥɨɬɨɣ ɜɟɤ ]RORWRM YHN@ refers to literature in nineteenth-century Russia—an unrivaled, rapidly evolving period of literary development, out of which HPHUJHG VRPH RI WKH PRVW IDPRXV 5XVVLDQ DXWKRUV LQ WKH :HVW Fyodor Dostoevsky, /HY 7ROVWR\ DQG$QWRQ &KHNKRY 7KH PRVW famous Russian poet, indeed Russia’s national poet, Alexander 3XVKNLQ ± OHVVZHOONQRZQLQWKH:HVWVHWWKHWRQHIRU the nineteenth century with his Romantic compositions of verse, LQFOXGLQJ D QRYHO LQ YHUVH >ɪɨɦɚɧ ɜ ɫɬɢɯɚɯ URPDQ Y VWLNKDNK@ which set the course for Russia’s Golden Age of Poetry, occurring GXULQJ WKH ¿UVW KDOI RI WKH QLQHWHHQWK FHQWXU\ 7KH WZR WHUPV Golden Age and Golden Age of Poetry refer to two different, but coinciding, periods in the evolution of Russian literature from the FODVVLFDOKHDYLO\(XURSHDQLQÀXHQFHGOLWHUDWXUHRIWKHHLJKWHHQWK FHQWXU\7KLVYROXPHWUHDWVWKHIRUPHUDOWKRXJKWKHODWWHULVFHUWDLQO\ LPSRUWDQW ZLWKLQ WKH FRQWH[W RI WKH IRUPHU 7KHUH DUH GLIIHULQJ opinions as to when exactly Russia’s Golden Age begins and ends, some believing it to have begun as early as the mid- to late eighteenth century and continued as late as the early twentieth century. For the purposes of this volume, intended as a broad overview for a general audience, we will take a more moderate view: that the Golden Age encompasses the bulk of the nineteenth century, beginning FRQVHUYDWLYHO\ZLWK3XVKNLQDQGFRQWLQXLQJWKURXJK&KHNKRY7KH authors and texts that emerged in Russia’s Golden Age are not only important in and of themselves,
    [Show full text]
  • The Idiot's Romantic Struggle
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Narr Francke Attempto Periodicals Dostoevsky Studies, New Series, Vol. XII (2008), pp. 81-103 ANNA A. BERMAN _____________________________ Princeton University The Idiot’s Romantic Struggle The Idiot does not immediately present itself as a romantic novel and critics have not generally regarded it in that light.1 However, its dramatic structure centers on an essentially romantic struggle. Reacting against classicism and the pure reason of the Enlightenment, the German romantics of the late eighteenth century (who became a model for the later Russian romantics) struggled to bridge the gap between reason and creativity, reality and ideals. “Romanticism was accustomed to wanting the impossible, to striving for the unattainable.”2 Breaking with earlier convention, romantic texts were often left unpolished, their structures fragmentary. Their plotlines frequently involved bringing together opposing worlds, the typical heroes being dreamers and wanderers and typical settings including pristine lands untouched by the corrupting hand of civilization. By the time Dostoevsky wrote The Idiot, twenty years had passed since his early romantic period and he was well established as a psychological writer in the new realist tradition, but “the school of romantic aesthetics… left a noticeable trace in his creative work.”3 The Idiot’s conception (written in chunks with no clear overall plan) and fragmented structure with jarring gaps between the four parts give it much that is akin to a romantic novel. At its heart is Dostoevsky’s great experiment – to create a ‘completely beautiful man’ with childlike 1 In his book on romantic realism, Fanger provides only one passing mention of The Idiot (1965: 132).
    [Show full text]