scholarly journals Semantics and Function of the Aphorism “Win Yourself and You Will Conquer the World” in the Works of Fedor Dostoevsky

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 113-128
Author(s):  
Antonella Cavazza
Keyword(s):  
Saint Augustine ◽  
Imitatio Christi ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Imitation Of Christ ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Village ◽  
Linguistic Means

<p>The repeated usage of the aphorism &ldquo;Win yourself and you will conquer the world&rdquo; in the works of F.&nbsp;M.&nbsp;Dostoevsky emphasized his words. Using different linguistic means the Russian writer compiled the message of a moral character striving for conveying it to his contemporaries, now with irony by putting it into mouth of Foma Fomich and Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky (the characters of the novels <em>The Village of Stepanchikovo and its inhabitants </em>and <em>Demons </em>respectively), now as an admonition by including it directly and indirectly into &ldquo;The Life of a Great Sinner&rdquo; and the novels <em>Demons</em>, <em>The Brothers Karamazov </em>and <em>The Raw Youth</em>. The dictum &ldquo;Win yourself and you will conquer the world&rdquo; echoes also on some pages of <em>A Writer&rsquo;s Diary</em>, where an ethical and philosophical feature of Dostoevsky<em>&rsquo;</em>s journalistic style manifests itself to the maximum. Modern researcher B. N. Tikhomirov has put forward a hypothesis that the saying &ldquo;Win yourself and you will conquer the world&rdquo; is based on quotations from the New Testament. The writer distilled this sententia from the writings of Saint Tikhon. The author of this article wondering who this aphorism belongs to and where it derives from, supposed and proved that it comes from the 57th sermon of St. Augustine or from the treatise &ldquo;On the imitation of Christ&rdquo; (&ldquo;Imitatio Christi&rdquo;) attributed to the Augustinian monk Thomas of Kemp. A copy of this treatise was kept in the library of Dostoevsky. After analyzing the hypothesis of B.&nbsp;N.&nbsp;Tikhomirov and her own assumption, the researcher has made both a philological analysis and the content one. As a result, she came to the conclusion that both these assumptions are possible and do not contradict each other. Given the fact that Saint Tikhon was well familiar with the writings of Saint Augustine, both these sources complement each other in the study of the aphorism? Win yourself and you will conquer the world&rdquo;.</p>

scholarly journals Felix Culpa: Salvific Sin in the Play The Satin Slipper and in the Novel The Brothers Karamazov

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-179
Author(s):  
Tatiana Kashina
Keyword(s):  
Human Freedom ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Garden Of Eden ◽  
New Man ◽  
Spiritual Change ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

The article attempts to compare the soteriological ideas of the play The Satin Slipper and the novel The Brothers Karamazov, two texts in which the authors express themselves most fully as theologians. For both texts, the theme of sin and atonement is central. The epigraphs to Paul Claudel’s play are two statements about the saving potential of sin. In Dostoevsky’s novel, it can be seen how sin becomes the most important starting point for further positive spiritual change of heroes. However, in his play, Claudel not only shows the possibility for sin to become the starting point for the conversion of protagonists, but also shows that in a certain sense the salvation of the world needs sin. For example, the main characters of the Satin Slipper make a kind of symbolic escape from paradise (Don Rodrigo leaves the Jesuit novitiate, Dona Prouhèze escapes from the “Garden of Eden” planted for her by her husband) and this allows them to reveal themselves in fullness and to realize their vocation, which is salvific for the world. Mitya Karamazov at the end of Dostoevsky’s novel says that the “new man” in him “would never have come to the surface” if certain things had not happened (and what happened includes a series of Mitya’s sins). This reminds of the idea of “happy guilt”, a term from the Latin hymn Exultet, which refers to the need for sin for the redemption. However, as Claudel shows, even by the very name of his play (Dona Prouhèze, before making her escape, donates her satin slipper as a gift to the Mother of God so that the Blessed Virgin would prevent her from taking the path of evil) suggests that sin becomes salvation only thanks to human freedom.

The Zossima Principle as an ideal for media ecology praxis

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Barry D. Liss
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The World ◽  
Dialectical Tension ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Lewis Mumford

This article develops the Zossima Principle as an ideal for the study of media ecology praxis. As such, I suggest that the Zossima Principle holds the potential to inform what we study as media ecologists and how we engage the world with practical responses to the exigencies and social issues arising from our analyses. I set the Zossima Principle in dialectical tension with Morris Berman’s (2000, 2013) articulation of the monastic option. I argue that Berman’s monastic option does not maintain the potential for substantive cultural rejuvenation. The Zossima Principle, based on the exhortations of Dostoyevsky’s elder monk from the novel The Brothers Karamazov, embraces a philosophy of existentialized love. This article demonstrates striking parallels between the ideas developed in the Zossima Principle and the writings of Lewis Mumford. I conclude with a series of pragmatic steps we can take as media ecologists, if we allow ourselves to take seriously the arguments underscoring this ideal.

Mythical Implications of Father Zosima's Religious Teachings

Slavic Review ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-289
Author(s):  
Roger B. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Personal Experience ◽  
Mystical Union ◽  
Personal Quality ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The World ◽  
Logical Connectives ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

One of the most perplexing questions in The Brothers Karamazov is the manner in which Father Zosima serves as Dostoevsky's spokesman on matters of spiritual faith. Zosima's teachings emphasize humility, a mystical union of man and the world, and undifferentiated love; the key to faith for him is the individual's own emotion, the wisdom of the heart. In keeping with the deeply personal quality of Zosima's message, he teaches in the form of short homilies and stories from his own past. These often lack logical connectives, relying instead on repetition of certain images of nature and mystical community. Malcolm Jones has aptly remarked that Dostoevsky withholds specific guidelines from his seekers of faith, giving only the personal experience of individual characters, which is bound up with the symbolism of their own interpretations.

scholarly journals Motives of Home and Homelessness in the Novel by F.M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-244
Author(s):  
Meruert B. Yeleussizova
Keyword(s):  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Special Role ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

The article is devoted to the study of the complex motive home-antidome in the work of F. Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov. Studying the motive as a key unit of narratology, the author comes to the conclusion that in Dostoevskys poetry a special role is played by antinomic motives, the multidirectional semantic potential of which contributes to the complexity of the poetic dialectic of the writer. Thus, the motive of the home in Dostoevskys novel is inextricably linked with the motives of homelessness, wandering, the search for the place in the world by the heroes of the novel. Each of the heroes of the novel is a bearer of the motive function of home. The image of old Karamazov is associated with the idea of desacralizing the house as an intimate, family space. Each of the brothers is in a transit situation, not having, according to the thesis of Yu.M. Lotman, fastening to a certain topos. Homelessness becomes for heroes of the work the starting point of a spiritual search. Using the methods of linguistic-poetic and literary analysis, the author of the article concludes that the motives of the anti-home in the Brothers Karamazov novelty explicate the writers idea of a person and his place in the world, and in a broader sense, of the past and future of Russia, which has lost touch with previous generations and faith in God.

How the Russian Theater Discovered Dostoevsky: an Experience in Findings and Losses

2021 ◽  
pp. 128-154
Author(s):  
Alexander L. Renansky ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Structure ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The World ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Public Reaction ◽  
Stage Play ◽  
Symptoms And Signs

The article is dedicated to conceptualization of the first the Moscow Art Theater experience in stage production of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” in (1910). A description is given of the process of V.I. Nemirovich- Danchenko’s work over a staged version of the novel and its scenic evocation. Consideration is given to the artistic discoveries of fundamental importance for the world theater that occurred in the process of work over the stage play: the discovery of new stagecraft techniques for theatricalizing great literature, the discovery of new “cinematographic” principles of editing acting scenes that had not been invented yet by the then cinematograph itself, the radical rethinking of the traditional temporal structure of scenic action, and the introduction of a Reader (Narrator) into the performance, a novelty for the world theater that allowed the combination of drama action and epic narrative, and the anticipation of the epic theater of the future. The public reaction to the stage production of “The Brothers Karamazov” found expression in a bitter widespread and lengthy dispute among leading political and literary-artistic groupings that revealed not only the deepening polarization in the attitudes toward Dostoevsky’s work but also the far-flung symptoms and signs of the spiritual condition of the Russian society in the prerevolutionary period.

To Die Laughing

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 737-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Costica Bradatan
Keyword(s):  
Milan Kundera ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political World ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The World ◽  
Meaning Creation ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Historical World

The article proposes an interdisciplinary introduction to the notion of the political world as farce. More exactly, it advances the argument that, despite experiencing the world as a joke of cosmic proportions, an individual can still create meaning even in the most meaningless conditions (concentration camps, totalitarian societies, etc.). The article traces the presence of the topic in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Primo Levi’s Se questo è un uomo and discusses the particular case of Milan Kundera, for whom the historical world appears as nothing but a cruel joke. The treatment of the topic is framed in relation to the theologia ludens tradition, the theatrical elements of Communism, as well as the process of meaning creation in conditions of meaninglessness.

scholarly journals Motives of Home and Homelessness in the Novel by F.M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-244
Author(s):  
Meruert B. Yeleussizova
Keyword(s):  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Special Role ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The World ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

The article is devoted to the study of the complex motive home-antidome in the work of F. Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov. Studying the motive as a key unit of narratology, the author comes to the conclusion that in Dostoevskys poetry a special role is played by antinomic motives, the multidirectional semantic potential of which contributes to the complexity of the poetic dialectic of the writer. Thus, the motive of the home in Dostoevskys novel is inextricably linked with the motives of homelessness, wandering, the search for the place in the world by the heroes of the novel. Each of the heroes of the novel is a bearer of the motive function of home. The image of old Karamazov is associated with the idea of desacralizing the house as an intimate, family space. Each of the brothers is in a transit situation, not having, according to the thesis of Yu.M. Lotman, fastening to a certain topos. Homelessness becomes for heroes of the work the starting point of a spiritual search. Using the methods of linguistic-poetic and literary analysis, the author of the article concludes that the motives of the anti-home in the Brothers Karamazov novelty explicate the writers idea of a person and his place in the world, and in a broader sense, of the past and future of Russia, which has lost touch with previous generations and faith in God.

scholarly journals The inn as a place of confession. On a feature of the art world of Dostoevsky

2021 ◽  
pp. 80-94
Author(s):  
N.I. Dimitrova
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Specific Form ◽  
Art World ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Original Intention ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The World ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Object Of Study

The object of study of the article is both the place that the word of confession occupies in the work of Dostoevsky and the place in which the word of confession itself is pronounced by the characters of the writer. As a literary form, confession is an inheritor of the Christian tradition, but subsequently the original intention to repent became unrecognizable among many other motives. The article notes that Dostoevsky's secularization of this religious motif took on a very specific form, associated with his famous romantic dream of seeing the world as a monastic dormitory; of uniting the secular and the sacred in order to give a sacred status to everyday life. The article examines the connection between Dostoevsky's confessional word and one of the places where it is spoken - the inn (as well as other drinking establishments). In order to highlight Dostoevsky's idea regarding the functions and goals of drinking establishments in general, the article focuses on his profile as an urban writer. Following is a discussion of specific cases (from “The Brothers Karamazov” and “Crime and Punishment”), in which the word of confession was spoken in a drinking establishment. The fact that the most philosophically saturated part of the writer's last novel is situated in this specific urban space is emphasized. The connection between the word of confession and the dirty inn is seen as part of Dostoevsky's creative experiments, as a test of the “endurance” of intimate, suffering ideas and faith in a completely random environment. This is the proposed explanation for the constant confrontation of the sacred and the profane, which we find in the work of the writer.

Elite and Popular Perceptions of Imitatio Christi in Twelfth-Century Crusade Spirituality

2006 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 54-64
Author(s):  
William J. Purkis
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Imitatio Christi ◽  
First Crusade ◽  
The People ◽  
Imitation Of Christ ◽  
The World

From the time of the proclamation of the First Crusade in 1095 to at least the first decade of the twelfth century, there was an apparently universal understanding amongst the people of Christendom that those who joined the pilgrimage-in-arms that set out to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land should be regarded as imitators of Christ. This was remarkable, for the imitation of Christ was understood by contemporaries to be the paramount ideal of spiritual perfection and, before 1095, only attainable by a total withdrawal from the world and a commitment to a monastic way of life. Yet with Pope Urban II’s Clermont sermon, the spirituality that was previously the preserve of those milites Christi who fought spiritual battles in the cloister was now also available to those who fought for Christ in the world. As the biographer of one prominent first crusader famously put it, before the proclamation of the crusade, his subject was ‘uncertain whether to follow in the footsteps of the Gospel or the world. But after the call to arms in the service of Christ, the twofold reason for fighting inflamed him beyond belief.’

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document