Women and Their Relationship with Men in Selected Works of Dostoevsky: A Semiotic and Phonological Approach Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY” by Inna Smirnov-Oknin Submitted to the Senate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev March 2011 Beer-Sheva Women and Their Relationship with Men in Selected Works of Dostoevsky: A Semiotic and Phonological Approach Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of “DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY” by Inna Smirnov-Oknin Submitted to the Senate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Approved by the advisor______________________________ Approved by the Dean of the Kreitman School of Advanced Graduate Studies ________________ October 2011 Beer-Sheva This work was carried out under the supervision of Professor Yishai Tobin In the Department of Foreign Literature and Linguistics The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Acknowledgements There are many people in my life that I would like to acknowledge and to extend by greatest appreciation for their involvement in the completion of this major achievement and without whom this thesis would not have been possible. First, my gratitude and thanks are given to my scientific advisor, Professor Yishai Tobin, who has been my guiding light throughout my doctoral studies. His wisdom, scholarly critique, words of encouragement, untiring support and sense of humor have been invaluable to me and have made this work possible. I would like to thank Ms Vered Shahar from the Kreitman School of Advanced Studies, who guided me through PhD requirements. I am indebted to my friends and colleges who understand and forgive me for being always busy and neglecting them during the years of my work on this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank my Mother for everything she has ever given to me, for her unconditional love and support, including the chance to make this dream a reality; my husband and children for being right by my side through my academic career, whose faith in my abilities kept me going when I just wanted to stop. Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my grandparents, Efim Shapiro and Bronia Shwartz, who always taught me the value of education and never put a price tag on my academic career. I am extremely appreciative and forever grateful for this gift. I love you and thank you for everything. You are always with me. Contents Abstract i Introduction 1 Chapter One- Feodor Dostoevsky: his time, his life and his works 5 1.1. Dostoevsky’s life/biography 5 1.2 Dominance hierarchy in Russian culture and society 13 1.3. Dominance hierarchy in literature 14 1.4 Dominance hierarchy in religion and philosophy 16 1.4.1. The Slavophil concept of sex 16 1.4.2. The Rationalistic Philosophy of Sex 17 1.4.3. The Religious Philosophy of Sex 17 1.5. Recent criticism on Dostoevsky’s works 19 Chapter Two- The text and the message 22 2.1. The text 22 2.2. The message 29 Chapter Three- The sign-oriented approach to language: theory and methodology 30 Chapter Four- The model of word systems and its application to the analysis of the relationship between men and women in Dostoevsky’s novels- love and hate word systems 52 4.1. The "Love" word system 76 4.1.1. Morpho-phono-semantic sub-system 76 4.1.2. Semantic-associative sub-system 77 4.1.3. Semantic conceptual sub-system 78 4.2. The "Hate" word system 80 4.2.1. Morpho-phono-semantic sub-system 80 4.2.2. Semantic-associative suffering-related sub-system 81 4.2.3. Semantic-conceptual slavery sub-system 83 4.2.4. Semantic-conceptual death sub-system 83 4.3. The "Love" and "Hate" word systems 84 Chapter Five- The model of word systems and its application to the analysis of the relationship between men and women in Dostoevsky’s novels- fantasy and reality and madness word systems 87 5.1. The "Fantasy" word system 87 5.1.1. Morpho-phono-semantic fantasy sub-system 110 5.1.2. Semantic-associative fantasy sub-system 110 5.1.3. Semantic-conceptual dream sub-system 111 5.2. The "Reality" word system 112 5.2.1. Morpho-phono-semantic reality sub-system 113 5.2.2. Semantic-associative reality sub-system 113 5.2.3.Semantic-conceptual realization/understanding sub- system 114 5.2.4.Morpho-phono-associative truth sub-system 114 5.3. The "Fantasy" and the "Reality" word systems 115 5.4. The "Madness" word system 119 5.4.1. Semantic madness subsystem 138 5.4.2. Semantic-associative illness subsystem 139 5.4.3. Semantic conceptual madness sub-system 140 5.5. Summary 140 Chapter Six- Phonological analysis of the lexicon of "love" versus "hate" in Dostoevsky's novels based on the theory of Phonology as Human Behavior 143 6.1. The distribution of monosyllabic, bi-syllabic and polysyllabic words 148 6.1.1. The distribution of monosyllabic, bi-syllabic and polysyllabic words in the Lexicon of Love- the data 149 6.1.2. The distribution of monosyllabic, bi-syllabic and polysyllabic words in the Lexicon of Hate – the data 150 6.1.3. Discussion 152 6.2. Additional articulators in word-initial position 153 6.2.1. Additional articulators in word-initial position in the Lexicon of Love- the data 155 6.2.2. Additional articulators in word-initial position in the Lexicon of Hate- the data 157 6.2.3. Discussion 160 6.3. Distribution of phonemes of constriction in word-initial position with reference to active articulators 165 6.3.1. Distribution of phonemes of constriction in word- initial position with reference to active articulators in the Lexicon of Love-the data 166 6.3.2. Distribution of phonemes of constriction in word- initial position with reference to active articulators in the Lexicon of Hate- the data 168 6.3.3. Discussion 170 6.4. The distribution of apical consonants in word-final position 172 6.4.1. The distribution of apical consonants in word-final position in the Lexicon of Love-the data 172 6.4.2. The distribution of apical consonants in word-final position in the Lexicon of Hate- the data 174 6.4. 3. Discussion 176 6.5. The distribution of the explosive mobile phonemes 178 6.5.1. The distribution of the explosive mobile phonemes in the Lexicon of Love- the data 178 6.5.2. The distribution of the explosive mobile phonemes in the Lexicon of Hate- the data 180 6.5. 3. Discussion 181 6.6. The distribution of the consonant clusters [R+Consonant] or [Consonant+R] and [Vowel+R+Vowel] or [R+Vowel] 182 6.6.1. The distribution of the consonant clusters [R+Consonant] or [Consonant+R] and [Vowel+R+Vowel] or [R+Vowel] in the Lexicon of Love- the data 182 6.6.2. The distribution of the consonant clusters [R+Consonant] or [Consonant+R] and [Vowel+R+Vowel] or [R+Vowel] in the Lexicon of Hate- the data 184 6.6.3. Discussion 185 6.7. Summary 185 Chapter Seven - Phonological analysis of the lexicon of "reality" versus "fantasy" in Dostoevsky's novels based on the theory of Phonology as Human Behavior 188 7.1. The distribution of monosyllabic, bisyllabic and polysyllabic words 189 7.2. Additional articulators in word-initial position 191 7.3. Distribution of phonemes of constriction in word-initial position with reference to active articulators 197 7.4. The distribution of apical consonants in word-final position 200 7.5. The distribution of the explosive mobile phonemes 202 7.6. The distribution of the consonant clusters [R+Consonant] or [Consonant+R] and [Vowel+R+Vowel] or [R+Vowel] 204 7.7. Summary 205 Chapter Eight- Summary and conclusions 207 Appendix 1- The lexicon of "love" and the lexicon of "hate" 211 Appendix 2- The lexicon of "fantasy" and the lexicon of "reality" 219 Bibliography 223 Abstract in Hebrew i List of Tables Table page 4.1. Examples of love and hate word systems in A Meek One 54 4.2. Examples of love and hate word systems in The Gambler 57 4.3. Examples of love and hate word systems in The Idiot 61 4.4. Examples of love and hate word systems in The Brothers Karamazov 71 4.5. Morpho-phono-semantic love-related sub-system 76 4.6. Semantic-associative love-related sub-system 77 4.7. Semantic-conceptual love-related sub-system 78 4.8. Morpho-phono-semantic hate-related sub-system 81 4.9. Semantic-associative suffering-related sub-system 81 4.10. Semantic-conceptual slavery-related sub-system 83 4.11. Semantic-conceptual death-related sub-system 84 5.1. Examples of the fantasy and reality word-systems in A Meek One 88 5.2. Examples of the fantasy and reality word-systems in The Gambler 90 5.3. Examples of the fantasy and reality word-systems in The Idiot 94 5.4. Examples of the fantasy and reality word-systems in The Brothers Karamazov 104 5.5. Morpho-phono-semantic fantasy-related sub-system 110 5.6. Semantic-associative fantasy-related sub-system 110 5.7. Semantic-conceptual dream-related sub-system 111 5.8. Morpho-phono-semantic reality-related sub-system 113 5.9. Semantic-associative reality-related sub-system 113 5.10. Semantic-conceptual realization/understanding sub-system 114 5.11. Morpho-phono-associative truth-related word system 115 5.12. Examples of the madness word system in A Meek One 119 5.13. Examples of the madness word system in The Gambler 121 5.14.