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Dostoevsky and the Epileptic Mode of Being Dostoevsky and the Epileptic Mode of Being A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities 2011 Kai-Yeung Fung English and American Studies School of Arts, Histories and Cultures Contents List of Illustrations 4 Abstract 5 Declaration 6 Copyright Statement 6 Acknowledgments 7 Preface 8 Note on Texts 9 Introduction 10 I Approaching the Epileptic Mode of Being 10 II The History of Epilepsy 14 III Epilepsy and the Moment 24 IV Epilepsy and Mystic Terror 28 V Writing the Impossible 34 Chapter One ‘The Egoism of Suffering’: Schiller with Sade 40 I The Humiliated and Insulted 40 II Schiller versus the Prince 44 III Freud and the Merciless Superego 50 IV Lacan’s Kant with Sade 53 V Mystic Terror and the Prince 58 VI The Russian de Sade 63 Chapter Two Petersburg and the Deaf and Dumb Spirit 65 I Reading Raskolnikov: Reading the City 65 II The Vision on the Neva 73 III Eclectic Architecture and Montage 78 IV The Haymarket and Dreams of Beating 91 Chapter Three The Image without an Image: The Guillotine and Holbein’s Dead Christ 96 I Dostoevsky’s Corpses 96 II Imagining the Guillotine 108 III Epilepsy and Death 116 2 IV Ippolit’s Explanation 120 Chapter Four The Will to Epilepsy: Suicide, Writing and Modernity 124 I ‘A great will and a great thought’ 124 II Kirilov’s ‘fearsome freedom’ 130 III ‘Death as Possibility’ 138 IV Stavrogin’s Crimes of Writing 140 V Perpetual Transformations 145 Chapter Five The Karamazovs’ Other History: Childhood, Violence and the Shriekers 147 I Contexts for the Novel 147 II The Mothers Karamazov 149 III ‘A moment of danger’ 157 IV A Corner of the Picture 158 V Alyosha’s Hysteria 162 VI Cana of Galilee 166 VII At Ilyusha’s Stone 169 Conclusion Death Sentences: Infinite Postponement 174 Bibliography 180 (Word count: 76656 ) ` 3 List of Illustrations The Mock Execution of the Petrashevtsy 1 32 Raskolnikov’s St. Petersburg (map) 2 74 St. Isaac’s Cathedral 3 80 The Bronze Horseman statue 4 81 Vasily Surikov, View of the Monument to Peter I on the Sanate Square 5 82 Hans Holbein the Younger, The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb 6 96 Claude Lorrain, Acis and Galatea 7 161 Paul Klee, Angelus Novus 8 173 1 This picture is borrowed from Joseph Frank, The Year of ordeal 1850-1859 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), p. 56. 2 This map is originally from Gary Cox, Crime and Punishment: A Mind to Murder (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990), p. 39. 3 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Isaac%27s_Cathedral.jpg> 4 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bronze_Horseman002.jpg> 5 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Surikov_horseman.jpg> 6 <http://www.abcgallery.com/H/holbein/holbein8.html> 7 <http://www.myartprints.com/kunst/claude_lorrain_199/1016794_v1.jpg> 8 < http://thesocietypages.org/thickculture/files/2010/02/6a00d8341c86cc53ef011571496b54970b- 800wi.jpg> 4 Abstract Dostoevsky and the Epileptic Mode of Being This thesis explores the relationship between Dostoevsky and epilepsy, suggesting that his works can be characterized by a mode of existence which is epileptic by nature. An attack of epilepsy is depicted in two phases: immense anxiety of the outbreak of a seizure; and its sudden attack, during which consciousness completely collapses. I suggest that Dostoevsky’s writings can be understood in terms of these two phases: an infinite alternation between the desire to seize upon a critical moment and the impossibility of experiencing it. The thesis examines five of Dostoevsky’s post-Siberian novels to illuminate this particular existence, this epileptic mode of being. Chapter 1 looks at Humiliated and Insulted to show that the seemingly selfless pursuit of moral ideals is a form of egoism. Vanya (Ivan Petrovich) sacrifices his personal interests and strictly binds himself to the moral law, incarnating Kantian moral imperatives. Discussing Freud on masochism and Jacques Lacan on Kantian ethics, this chapter shows that philanthropy is a form of idealism which privileges the ascetic ideal and despises the body. The chapter also shows how moral idealism is mocked and suspended under the power of epilepsy. Chapter 2, on Crime and Punishment , demonstrates how Dostoevsky’s Petersburg is depicted as enigmatic, even ‘epileptic’, disconfirming subjectivity. The eclectic style of the city’s architecture – specifically St. Isaac’s Cathedral – makes the Petersburger disoriented and decentred. Similarly, the chapter demonstrates that the meanings of ‘crime’ and ‘punishment’ are pluralized in Raskolnikov’s dreams, revealing a splitting of identity. Due to this schizophrenic nature of the urban subject, there can be no single knowledge of why Raskolnikov commits the murder. Chapter 3 explores the split subject in The Idiot . Prince Myshkin wants to reflect on the final moment just before consciousness collapses. He likes to freeze that moment and contemplate the possibility of an afterlife. But this wish is eclipsed by the seizure or, in the case of a guillotine execution, the immediate arrival of death, which continues to create a contradictory existence. Chapter 4 examines Kirilov and his suicide plan in Demons to show that the epileptic has a will to master death: he has a will to the knowledge of death. But paradoxically, death is something ungraspable and cannot be appropriated into the realm of experience. Death as well as epilepsy eludes the self who wants to grasp it. This chapter also discusses Nietzsche on nihilism and Maurice Blanchot’s comments on Kirilov’s suicide. Chapter 5 suggests a form of ‘feminine’ epilepsy in The Brothers Karamazov , which I link with the hysterics who suffer from their reminiscences. I show that epilepsy is a moment of rupture of repressed violence. Epilepsy not only disrupts Vanya’s moral idealism, Petersburg’s pure architectural style, the Prince and Kirilov’s wishes for an eternal life, but it also evokes what is repressed beneath these thoughts. This chapter ends with Walter Benjamin’s angel of history, showing how the novel unveils a family history which is violent and silenced. The thesis concludes with Blanchot’s The Instant of My Death , suggesting that the epileptic mode of being demands the Dostoevsky’s heroes to live in infinite postponement, which necessitates a Dostoevskian subject which is infinitely deferred and unfinalized. Kai-Yeung Fung, PhD candidate, The University of Manchester 20 January 2011 5 Declaration No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. Copyright Statement i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialization of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy, in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. For further information, see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations and http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487 6 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my first supervisor Professor Jeremy Tambling, whose comments on my research have been always helpful and inspiring. To borrow Nietzsche’s reading of epilepsy, my experience of discussing literature with Jeremy Tambling has been a series of ‘intellectual spasms’. Professor Galin Tihanov’s supportive and caring words, especially his comments on my conference papers on Dostoevsky, have been an invaluable source of motivation for my pursuit of Russian literature. I am also grateful to Galin for providing the opportunity for me to study Russian in the undergraduate program at The University of Manchester. Dr. Hal Gladfelder’s meticulous reading of my chapters has been helpful in polishing the thesis’s presentation and improving my writing skills. I also thank him for letting me teach as a graduate teaching assistant in the department, from which I have learnt a lot. The theory reading group, led by Professor Tambling and initiated by James Smith, has given me the chance to engage with intensely exciting works of figures such as Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Lacan and Walter Benjamin. The group discussions have inspired the theoretical aspect of this thesis. My thanks to Carolyn Broomhead for listening to my chapter on The Idiot and JT Welsh for commenting my conference paper on cinema and the representation of death. The talks with Iain Bailey and James Smith about our theses and the future were very useful and uplifting.
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