Heroism and the Provincial Novel

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Chadwick
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
George Eliot ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Future Action ◽  
The World

It is generally accepted that 19th-century realist novelists sought to create heroes and heroines who were at once representative and exceptional: representative because they incarnate something instantly recognizable across space and time, exceptional because they must command narrative interest. The heroes of the provincial 19th-century novel struggle to navigate these competing impulses. Their creators inherited a literary tradition that tended to extol larger-than-life figures who, through military exploits or adventures on the border of empire, inspired admiration or worship. However, consonant with the realist novel’s rejection of both epic and Romantic heroes, the authors of provincial novels depict a world of fragmentation, a world that can no longer accommodate heroic ambition. Their provincial settings comprise an arena in which greatness cannot be realized: the province is too far removed from the world historical stage, it seems, too full of petty rivalries, to enable the hero to flourish. The provincial novelists George Eliot and Fyodor Dostoevsky can be read as case studies of writers who embody this tension. While the thrust of most criticism on both writers is to recast the dearth of heroic activity as a virtue (with the meanness of world historical opportunity being amply assuaged by opportunities for small acts of prosaic, diffusive kindness), Dostoevsky and Eliot treat with regret the inability of their protagonists to realize their heroic aspirations. In so doing, far from throwing their lot in with the limitations of the novel as a genre (i.e., its anti-epic parameters), they maintain a desire to transcend the limits of the novel genre’s mundane presentness. By rescuing their characters from the provincial environments in which they have been unable to realize their heroic feats and by destining them for future action elsewhere, the “here-now” chronotope of the provincial novel is rejected in favor of a “there-then” chronotope which, by definition, cannot be explicated in the form of the novel (and as such, their novels must end with the exile of their protagonists). Although readings of their novels that emphasize the importance of prosaic goodness remain persuasive, they do not altogether invalidate these writers’ desire for heroic activity.

scholarly journals BIG AND SMALL WORLDS OF CHILDREN CHARACTERS IN ‘A LITTLE PRINCESS’ BY F. H. BURNETT

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 70-78
Author(s):  
Varvara A. Byachkova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Charles Dickens ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Small World ◽  
Protective Mechanism ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Small Worlds ◽  
The World ◽  
Space Organization

The article raises the topic of space organization in writings by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The object of analysis is the novel A Little Princess. The novel, addressed primarily to children and teenagers, has many similarities with David Copperfield and the works of Charles Dickens in general. The writer largely follows the literary tradition created by Dickens. The space of the main character is divided into three levels: the Big world (states and borders), the Small world (home, school, city) and the World of imagination. The first two worlds give the reader a realistic picture of Edwardian England, the colonial Empire, through the eyes of a child reveal the themes of unprotected childhood, which the writer develops following the literary tradition of the 19th century. The Big and Small worlds also perform an educational function, being a source of experience and impressions for the main character. In the novel, the aesthetic of realism is combined with folklore and fairy-tale elements: the heroine does not completely transform the surrounding space, but she manages to change it partially and also to preserve her own personality and dignity while experiencing the Dickensian drama of child disenfranchisement, despair and loneliness. The World of imagination allows the reader to understand in full the character of Sarah Crewe, demonstrates the dynamics of her growing up, while for herself it is a powerful protective mechanism that enables her to pass all the tests of life and again become a happy child who can continue to grow up and develop.

scholarly journals Aleksandr Karepin, the nephew of Fyodor Dostoevsky and the hero of his novels

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-160
Author(s):  
Maria A. Myakinchenko
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Healthy Person ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
The World ◽  
The Relationship

The article discusses aspects of the relationship between Fyodor Dostoevsky and his nephew Aleksandr Karepin as well as their reflection in the writer's work. The peculiarities of the nature and character of Aleksandr Karepin are briefly described; he was a very peculiar and not completely mentally healthy person, who served as the prototype for various, in fact, diametrically opposed in spiritual terms heroes – Pavel Trusotsky from “The Eternal Husband” and Prince Myshkin from the novel “The Idiot”. The article concludes that the use of different, sometimes opposite personality traits of the prototype when creating images of the heroes of the works was a feature of the creative method of Fyodor Dostoevsky. In addition, Aleksandr Karepin's mental illness and the oddities in his behaviour allowed the writer to think out in different ways and build not only the image of a hero with certain features of the prototype, but also the attitude of the world around him to this character, which in turn illustrates the diseases of society.

Rechtsfälle in der juristischen Ausbildung der Pandektenwissenschaft

2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (1) ◽  
pp. 283-294
Author(s):  
Hans-Peter Haferkamp
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
The World ◽  
Lecture Notes ◽  
Education Today ◽  
Traditional Image

Abstract Case studies as part of pandectistic legal education in 19th century Germany. The traditional image of the pandectistics rested on the assumption that legal education in this area, which inspired students from all over the world, relied exclusively on the logicsystematic pandect textbooks. These days we know that case studies, too, played an important role in addition to the primarily systematic pandect lectures. The pandectists studied the interpretation of legal problems, which were mainly inspired by court practise. This paper is unprecedented in using actual lecture notes to evaluate those solutions developed during the lectures which were not included in the printed case collections. It becomes clear that the technique used for solving legal problems differs as much from the relation method, which was applied by the courts in that period, as it differs from the so-called claim method, which is common in German legal education today.

scholarly journals Rodion Raskolnikov's dreams in Vietnamese translation

2019 ◽  
pp. 151-155
Author(s):  
Nguyễn Thị Hoan ◽  
Galina G. Yermilova
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Semantic Richness ◽  
Text Selection

Rodion Raskolnikov's dreams in Vietnamese translation The article analyses the Vietnamese translations of excerpts about the dreams of Rodion Raskolnikov, the protagonist of the novel "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is these dreams that are narrated with high semantic richness as they explain the reason why the hero was driven to commit the felony. Three available Vietnamese translations of the novel have been included for analysis. As a result of the preliminary solid text selection and the followed analysis of the original and translated texts, we came to the conclusion that the translators experienced the greatest challenges in conveying the realia of the mid 19th-century Russian people’s religious and everyday life as well as the ontological issues in the novel. Some specific clarifications are suggested for unclear content in the available translations.

scholarly journals “Restoring the Kinship”: the Novel The Adolescent as a Prologue to the Dialogue Between Nikolay Fedorov and Fyodor Dostoevsky

2021 ◽  
pp. 58-87
Author(s):  
Anastasia G. Gacheva
Keyword(s):  
The Novel ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
Main Work ◽  
Common Task ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Common

The article is an attempt to read the novel The Adolescent in the light of the spiritual and creative dialogue between the philosopher of the common task Nikolay Fedorov and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Although The Adolescent was written and published three years before Fedorov’s student N. Peterson presented his teacher’s ideas to the writer in the article “What should a people’s school be?”, the novel can be considered as a prologue to the topic that eventually became the subject of Fedorov’s main work The question of brotherhood or kinship, about the causes of the non-fraternal, unrelated, i.e. non-peaceful, state of the world, and about the means to restore kinship. The plot of the novel is interpreted in the article through the prism of Fedorov’s themes of non-kinship and the restoration of universal kinship, the idea of returning the hearts of sons to their fathers and the fathers’ ones to their children. It is shown how the theme of “family as the practical beginning of love” is expressed in the novel.

Middlemarch

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Eliot ◽  
David Russell
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
George Eliot ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
The World ◽  
Self Knowledge ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Insight Into

‘The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.’ The greatest ‘state of the nation’ novel in English, Middlemarch addresses ordinary life at a moment of great social change, in the years leading to the Reform Act of 1832. Through her portrait of a Midlands town, George Eliot addresses gender relations and class, self-knowledge and self-delusion, community and individualism. Eliot follows the fortunes of the town's central characters as they find, lose, and rediscover ideals and vocations in the world. Through its psychologically rich portraits, the novel contains some of the great characters of literature, including the idealistic but naïve Dorothea Brooke, beautiful and egotistical Rosamund Vincy, the dry scholar Edward Casaubon, the wise and grounded Mary Garth, and the brilliant but proud Dr Lydgate. In its whole view of a society, the novel offers enduring insight into the pains and pleasures of life with others, and explores nearly every subject of concern to modern life:. art, religion, science, politics, self, society, and, above all, human relationships. This edition uses the definitive Clarendon text.

scholarly journals The drama and the libretto "The Storm" by Alexander Ostrovsky: a historical plan in the image of the patriarchal world

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-83
Author(s):  
Nadezhda G. Mikhnovets
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
17Th Century ◽  
Private Life ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
History Of

The article is devoted to the problem of studying the historiosophical views of Alexander Ostrovsky. The author examines it on the material of two works by the playwright written in different years: the drama "The Storm" and the libretto "The Storm". The article provides a comparative analysis of these works and substantiates the provision that they are in complementary relations. The author comes to the conclusion that Alexander Ostrovsky as a librettist restores the character of public and private life of the heroes of the 17th century, consistently removing the themes indicating the crisis state of the patriarchal world in the mid 19th century. The article shows that at the same time, the playwright reveals the causes of this crisis. The author points out the convergence between the libretto "The Storm" and the novel "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky, as well as the book "The History of a Town" by Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. The study helps clarify the historical and cultural realities of the two works of the same name by Alexander Ostrovsky and deepen their interpretations, which is topical in the context of the preparation of his Complete works and letters to publish.

scholarly journals Hawthorne’s Miriam – a female enigma: A seductive femme fatale or a victim of abuse?

Ars Aeterna ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-35
Author(s):  
Irina Rabinovich
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Jewish Women ◽  
Political Forces ◽  
The World ◽  
The One

Abstract In his last published novel, The Marble Faun (Hawthorne, 1974), in spite of his seeming sympathy for Miriam’s plea for friendship, Hawthorne’s narrator relates to Miriam as a “guilty” and “bloodstained” woman, who similarly to the female Jewish models portrayed in her paintings, carries misery, vice and death into the world. The narrator’s ambiguity vis-àvis Miriam’s moral fibre, on the one hand, and his infatuation with the beautiful and talented female artist, on the other, stands at the heart of the novel. The goal of this paper is mainly addressed at examining Miriam’s position in Hawthorne’s fiction, through an analysis of his treatment of his other “dark” and “light” women. Furthermore, I enquire whether Miriam is to be perceived in terms of the popular stereotypical representations of Jewish women (usually, Madonnas or whores), or whether she is granted more original and idiosyncratic characteristics. Next, I discuss Hawthorne’s treatment of Miriam’s artistic vocation, discerning her distinctiveness as a female Jewish 19th-century artist. Finally, Hawthorne’s unconventional choice of Rome as the setting for his novel unquestionably entails reference to the societal, cultural and political forces at play.

scholarly journals GRANDCOURT IN GEORGE ELIOT’S ‘DANIEL DERONDA’ AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
Boris M. Proskurnin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
George Eliot ◽  
Arthur Schopenhauer ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
Daniel Deronda ◽  
The World ◽  
Main Notion ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
First Time

For the first time in Russian studies of George Eliot, one of the central characters of her only novel about contemporary English life, Daniel Deronda, is under analysis. The character of Grandcourt is looked at as the writer’s distinctive reflection on her reading and comprehension of Arthur Schopenhauer’s book Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (1818). The author of the essay gives the facts of the very serious, profound and critical reading of this book by George Eliot. The essay shows in what ways this kind of reading influences the ideological and artistic structures of the novel. It is specially demonstrated how George Eliot’s thorough knowing of Schopenhauer’s book and the thoughts this knowing generates reflects on the image of Grandcourt. It is stressed in the article that the character of Grandcourt is not simply to illustrate some passages of the philosophical system of the German thinker. It is argued that Schopenhauer’s concepts of Man, his role and place in the world cause George Eliot’s deep ontological thinking of human existence and its meaning; the German philosopher’s speculations lead Eliot to the indirect dialogue and dispute with Schopenhauer as it happens in some works by Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and other authors of the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries. The author of the article demonstrates artistic principles and means with the help of which George Eliot reconsiders the main notion of Schopenhauer’s system – Wille (Will), which transforms into rampage of subjectivity, unrestrained egoism and egotism, despotism, aggression, disdain of Other, moral violence and rapture of it, rejection of common sense and practical logic, the triumph of ‘nature’, seen merely as an instinct, deletion of such notions as self-analysis and self-criticism, human sympathy, compassion, friendship, love to others. Some special emphasis is put on Eliot’s arguing against Schopenhauer’s gender anthropology. It is stressed in the article that, parallel to ontological disagreement and with the help of this polemics, Eliot through the image of Grandcourt both ironically and dramatically sharpens some moral ill-being of contemporary English high society.

scholarly journals TO THE QUESTION OF MYTHOPOETICS IN BATYRBEK TUGANOV’S WORKS

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
А.А. ЗИМА
Keyword(s):  
Coordinate System ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
World Order ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Semantic Level ◽  
The World ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
Xix Century ◽  
The 19Th Century

Рубеж XIX–XX вв. выявляет интереснейшие особенности культурных векторов, показывает пути синтеза и интеграции различных направлений и видов искусств, стилей, философских базисов мировоззренческих систем. Творчество одного из самых ярких осетинских писателей Батырбека Туганова развивалось в русле реалистической системы, заложенной русской литературной традицией XIX в. При этом его художественное мышление выстраивается под сильнейшим влиянием особенностей национальной осетинской культуры. В целом культура реализма XIX в. стремится к демифологизации. Но Туганов живет и творит на рубеже столетий, когда, наоборот, возрождается интерес к мифу, символу, древним шифрам искусства. В произведениях Батырбека Туганова можно выделить ряд мифопоэтических конструктов, рожденных в недрах архаической культуры осетин и обладающих сакральной образностью. Картина мира этого писателя сложна, многоуровнева, удивительно органична и емка в своей архитектонике реалистического сюжета и мифопоэтической вневременной сути образов и событий. Особенность почерка Туганова в том, что он всегда выписывает образы очень цельно, выпукло, фактурно. Автор доводит портреты персонажей и сюжетные линии до масштаба мифологической цельности восприятия. Такому принципу работы над литературным текстом могло способствовать дарование Б. Туганова-художника, навыки скульптора, живописца и рисовальщика, реализованный внутренний творческий механизм визуализации вербального образа. При чтении произведений Туганова психология человека, далекого от эпохи архаики, монтируется с синкретическим базисом нашего подсознания. Реализм Туганова становится генетическим продолжением глубокого и древнего мифологизма осетинской культуры, усиливает свои позиции и выходит на новый образно-семантический уровень. При том, что в произведениях Батырбека Туганова «Ханифа» и «Пастух Баде» анализируется целый ряд особенностей мифологического текста, Туганов остается реалистом. Его реализм в том, что писатель выявляет сбой в системе координат традиционного миропорядка, нарушение мифологической гармонии человека и мира. Неореалистический метод как будто «взламывает» древние коды установленного миропорядка, заставляя нас еще острее воспринимать мифологемы нашей культуры. The frontier of the XIX-XX centuries reveals the most interesting features of cultural vectors, shows the ways of synthesis and integration of various areas and types of arts, styles, philosophical bases of worldview systems. The work of one of the brightest Ossetian writers Batyrbek Tuganov developed in line with the realistic system laid down by the Russian literary tradition of the 19th century. At the same time, his artistic thinking is built under the strongest influence of the features of national Ossetian culture. The culture of realism of the XIX century strive for demythologization. But Tuganov lives and works at the turn of centuries, when, on the contrary, interest in myth, symbol, ancient ciphers of art is revived. In the works of Batyrbek Tuganov, a number of mythopoietic constructs born in the bowels of the archaic Ossetian culture and having sacred imagery can be distinguished. The picture of the world of this writer is complex, multilevel and surprisingly organic and capacious in its architectonics of a realistic plot and mythopoietic timeless essence of images and events. The peculiarity of Tuganov’s handwriting is that he always writes out images very whole, convex, factual. The author brings portraits of characters and storylines to the scale of mythological integrity of perception. This principle of work on a literary text could be facilitated by the talent of B. Tuganov-artist, the skills of the sculptor, painter and draftsman, and the implemented internal creative mechanism for visualizing the verbal image. When reading the works of Tuganov, the psychology of a person far from the period of archaic is mounted with the syncretic basis of our subconscious. Tuganov’s realism becomes a genetic continuation of the deep and ancient mythologism of Ossetian culture, strengthens its position and reaches a new figurative-semantic level. Despite the fact that the works of Batyrbek Tuganov “Hanifa” and “Shepherd Bade” analyze a number of features of the mythological text, Tuganov remains a realist. His realism is that the writer reveals a failure in the coordinate system of the traditional world order, a violation of the mythological harmony of man and the world. The neorealist method seems to “crack” the ancient codes of the established world order, forcing us to even sharper perceive the mythologies of our culture.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document