Word and Image in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov: From an AnaIysis of the Dialectic in the Novel to an Interpretation of Dostoevsky's Confrontation with Hans Holbein the Younger's The Bodv of the Dead Christ in the Tomb Jeff GatralI Comparative Literature Facul ty of Arts Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degrer of Master of Arts Facul ty of Graduate Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario Aupst, 1997 O Jeff Gatrall 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale I*m of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue WelIington Ottawa ON KlA ON4 Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Canada Canada Ywr Me Vdre relèrena, Our Ne Nme réfdrence The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son pemiission. autorisation. Abstract In this thesis, a dialectical approach that responds to the dialectic in The Brothers Karamazov is developed. This dialectical approach is inspired by and situates itszlf in relation to Mikhail Bakhtin's Problems of Dostoevskfs Poetics, Theodor W. Adorno's Negative Dialectics, and Max Horkheimer's and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment. Throughout the thesis, the relationships between the dia1ectic of belief, the dialectic of enlightenrnent, modem representation, word and image are explored. In the first chapter, "Word," an analysis of the aesthetic form the dialectic assumes in the novel leads to an elucidation of the dialectics of realist representation. In the second chapter, "Image," the dialectic of be1ief is retated to the problem of divine representation. There is a comparative emphasis between Dostoevsky's dialectic and dialectics in the German philosophicai tradition and, more specifically, between Dostoevsky' s images and Hans Holbein the Younger's painting The Bodv of the Dead Christ in the Tornb. Acknowledgments In one of his short stories, Chekhov compares ideas with the shirnrnenng lights of the campfires of railway workers. Each Bame fi eetingly illuminates the steppe before disappeanng into the night sky. Ideas lighten not oniy the lonely room of the mind's contempIation, but flicker in that fragile space between those huddling close in the night. But perhaps this metaphor of the idea as a shirnmering fiame is too sentimental for a thesis concemed with Dostoevsky's critique of Eniightenment thought. Professor Reuel Wilson's knowledge of Dostoevsl+ life and work and his insights on The Brothers Karamazov have been very helptùl. Professor Angela Esterhammer's support and advice by e-mail from Berlin provided me with a much needed link to the University of Western Ontario's Comparative Literature Program while 1was working in Moscow. 1 would also like to thank Professor Calin Mihailescu for introducing me to Horkheimer's and Adorno's Dialectic of Enliehtenment and to Kristeva's essay on Holbein. It was durinç Our discussions of these two texts that the major comparative emphasis in this thesis between Dostoevsky and German philosophy and art was first conceived. Dunng an extensive e-mail correspondence with Dan Mellamphy, many difficult ideas on the relationships between kenosis, beauty, compassion and suffering were worked through. In addition to searching for matenal in London, Ontario that I could not find in Moscow, Dan Mellamphy and Nancy Bray were always willing to share their ideas and to listen patiently to my concems about the thesis. Table of Contents Page -. Certificate of examination 11 .. Abstract LI1 Acknowledgments iv Table of contents v Instead of an Introduction: Towards a Dialectical Approach to The Brothers Karamazov 1 I Word "Vse porvoleno" and "vse ru vsekh virtovaîy": The Semantics of Plot 13 Origin of the Dialectic in The Brothers Karamazov: A Formal Approach 4 1 2 Image The Divine and the Limits of Representation 62 Aesthetic Distance and the Image of the Kenotic Christ 99 Works Cited 129 Vita 134 In memory of Trene Gatrall Kunrtrnuseum . St. Alban-Graben 76 Offantliche Kunstsammlung Museum MI C3egernMlrtskun.t Baset St- Alban-Rheinweg 60 Mr,JeffGatraU 12096 North Pacific Ave. Tacumseh, ON Pest-Adnisa: 'Csnsda 6ffentlicho Kunnsirnmlung CH-4010 B~S~I.Portfach Dcar Sir, Provided the minute observation of the conditions mdoned below, we h-y ~t you pumission to reproduoe in your Mastds theais (Univasity of West- Ontario, London, Ontatio) the work of our allection mentioned hCfCafte~ H~nsHolbein the Yoaager, The Body of the Dud Ch& in rbe Tomb. 1521 (=ession m.3 18) Vamished distemper on limewood pancl, 30.5 x 200 cm -: Oeffentllche Knnstsammlung Basel, KaxnrQitiseum Photo: Ocffmtliche Kunstsammlung Basd, Martin Buhler -: -: 1. Every reproduction is to bc accompanied by the nami of the art&, the titfe of the work and the crcdit Eue as indicatai hvcand is to indude the names of the donor or special collection (2nd cxedit linc) and of the photographer if indicated above. -- 2. To assure the moral nghts of the dst, thc entk work of art mmbo repmduced without cropping, ''bleedingl', alteration by sup~posadimages, colour stock or ovapmit of any Iand. Reproduction of a portion or d&l of the wo* and distorting or discriminating use is not permittad. 3. Wewaive a rsproduction fee in favour of 8 compiimentaxy copy of your publication, which has to be sent to us unsoliicitedly. This permission is valid for one-time, onause onb. You Ml1 be using the illustrations fkom "Homein: The paintings of Ham Holbein the Young=- (Phaidon Press Ltd., Oxfôrd 1985). Yours sincerely, TOTAL P.O1 S/f.lt11-1 ...,..... ....,...,................+ ...........W.. NUC (Bkkchp8): i.i......i...i.i..............-..ir .....o...od.. Dab: ..... .. ............... ..W............ *......-.-.-.... For OffiUse oriy: IavoicciwcdbyQswtnct~~~:............................ Daa*....... ....,.........I(I#44*..1 .........W....I.......... chwuc wivdby Customa moa: ............... ..... ...- ulta: ......................................................... Nocifimion by Cm.soma wia &aien$ ...- Dsr- ........................... ..-.. .......--........ vii i Instead of an Introduction: Towards a Dialectical Approach to The Brothers Karamazov Dunng Ivan Karamazov's nightmare on the eve of his brother's triai, the Devil reIates to Ivan a legend about a thinker and philosopher who, having repudiated the afterlife while alive, refùsed "on principle" to begin his afterlife punishment of a quadrillion kilometre walk to the gates of heaven. Ivan, &er listening to the legend, "catches" the devil, fervently explaining that he himself had composed this legend at the age of seventeen. Ivan repudiates, to the Devil hirnself, the Devil's independent existence. The Devil insists that he told Ivan his own story on purpose: If the Devil, a "banal devil [nournbrii qep~]"(2 358) and a "hanger-on ~pi.rmki~anb~~~]"(2 345), sets himself the "noble goal" of planting a seed of faith in God through doubt, then Dostoevsky exploits the "new method" of his Devil and double in the composition of The Brothers Karamazov. DostoevsS, himself suggests such a cornparison between himselfand his Devil in his preparatory notes for a polemic with the critic Kavelin: The inquisitor and the chapter about children. In view of these chapters you could at Ieast regard me although scientifically, not so arrogantly in the area of philosophy, even thoush philosophy may not be my specialty. Even in Europe such force of atheistic expressior~does not now exist rior did it ever. Accordingly, it is not like a child that 1believe in him and profess faith in hiin, but rather, the hu.scr,urcr -- pp i "1 am altemately leading you between belief and disbelief. and here 1 have n.iy own goal. It's a new mehod: after al1 when you have completely lost your belief in me. bediately ?ou \vil1 start to persuade me to my face that 1 am not a dream and that I reall>-eSist. for I alread?. ho\v >.ou well; then 1 will have reached rn). goal. And my goal is a noble one. I tvill throu- onl?. a tiny seed of belief at you, and fiom it an O& tree tvill grow - and such an oak tree, that you. sitting on that oak will want to enrol nlth the herrnits and the chaste woman in the desert; because -ou secretly want this very much. You will be eating locusts and \vil1 drag yourseif to the desert to become saved!" (Trans. Magarshack 2 759). Udess othenvise indicated, translations ftom Russian texts are mine. has corne through the grmt crircible of dozrbl, as the devil says in that same novel of mine. (The Unpublished Dostoevsky 175) This dialectic of belief not ody iies at the center of the novel's broader dialectic but permeates its aesthetic form. While the characters, readers and author suffer the question of belief in the existence of God, the novel's discourse beIies the verbal wasteland of this dialectic. The path to God that Dostoevsky draws in The Brothers Karamazov is always also a path to atheism. Between the portraits of suffering children in Ivan's "Rebellion" and the beauty of the image of Christ in his "Grand Inquisitor," between Fyodor's carnivalesque word that defiles everything beautifid it touches and Zosima's Iyrical celebration of active, living love, the novel's words and images aesthetically rnimic the dialectic of belief.