scholarly journals EXCESSIVE DRINKING AS A MORAL TRANSGRESSION IN THE WORK OF F. M. DOSTOEVSKY

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 239-257
Author(s):  
Evgeniia Kuikina
Keyword(s):  
Excessive Drinking ◽  
Serious Illness ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Russian People ◽  
Human Essence ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Christian Understanding ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Moral Transgression

The article studies the topic of excessive drinking in the works of F. M. Dostoevsky in the light of the tradition of the ancient feast, or symposium. The wine offered at a symposium did not merely incline people to philosophical conversations and discussions about eternal questions, but also revealed the inner human essence, thoughts and intentions. There is ancient understanding of wine as a means of forgetting sorrows and attaining temporary joys. Excessive drinking is associated with the ancient Dionysian idea — excessive drinking at the festival of Dionysus, and the concept of metamorphosis — people lose their human essence and begin to resemble animals. In the fates of the heroes of Dostoevsky’s Poor Folk, Humiliated and Insulted, Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, Demons, The Brothers Karamazov, the ancient tradition is combined with the Christian understanding of a feast as reveling, and amusements at a feast, and excessive drinking as a moral transgression. On the pages of Dostoevsky’s magazine Citizen excessive drinking is equated to a serious illness, a flood, a fire, an enemy invasion, that is, to a catastrophe that affects the Russian people. The ancient tradition allows to reveal additional meanings in Dostoevsky’s interpretation of the topic of excessive drinking.

scholarly journals To Be or Not to Be God—The Issue of Authorial Power in Dostoevsky

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 506
Author(s):  
Alexander Zholkovsky
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Playing God ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Grand Inquisitor ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

This paper problematizes the now widely accepted concept of Dostoevsky’s dialogism, which alleges the ‘Author’s’ equal empowerment of all his characters. Using examples from Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, Zholkovsky focuses on instances of ‘scene-staging’ based on the ‘scripts’ devised and enacted by some characters, that are ‘read,’ with varying success, by their targets. He documents the resulting ‘discursive combat’ among the characters, with special attention paid to those ‘playing god’ and thus, the more ‘authorial’ among them. In several cases, the would-be ‘divine’ manipulation is shown to be consistently subverted by the Dostoevskian narrative. However, in one instance, where Aliosha Karamazov charitably scripts Captain Snegirev’s behavior, the ensuing discussion of this episode, in Aliosha’s conversations with Lise Khokhlakova, upholds Aliosha’s right to play god with the Other—“for the Other’s own good”, of course (not unlike the Grand Inquisitor).

«SUPERNATURAL» AND «FANTASTIC» IN DOSTOEVSKY’S POETICS: THE RECEPTION BY USA RESEARCHERS IN SLAVIC STUDIES

2021 ◽  
pp. 132-141
Author(s):  
Tatiana Millionshchikova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literary Studies ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Slavic Studies

The review analyzes Slavic literary studies of the USA discussing the motives of unreality used by F.M. Dostoevsky to create atmosphere of fantastic and supernatural in his prose. It focuses on the works by R.B. Anderson, R.L. Jackson, D. Lowe, N. Perlina, St. Rachman, and E. Slivkin, exploring the role and functions of supernatural in the Dostoevsky's novels «Notes from the House of the Dead», «Crime and punishment», «Idiot», «Devils», and «The Brothers Karamazov».

Dostoevsky, Confession, and the Evolutionary Origins of Conscience

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-32
Author(s):  
Tom Dolack
Keyword(s):  
World Literature ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Group Norms ◽  
Fyodor Dostoevsky ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

Abstract Fyodor Dostoevsky is renowned as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature, but what we know about the origins and the workings of the human mind has changed drastically since the late nineteenth century. If Dostoevsky was such a sensitive reader of the human condition, do his insights hold up to modern research? To judge just by the issue of the psychology of confession, the answer appears to be: yes. The work of Michael Tomasello indicates that the human conscience evolved in order to make people obey group norms. From this I draw the proposition that confession should be best directed to the group as a whole, and not to an individual. Judging by Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment and an assortment of characters in The Brothers Karamazov, this appears to be exactly how confession works in Dostoevsky's novels: sin is against all, so forgiveness must be from all.

Crime Without Punishment: Ivan Bunin’s "Loopy Ears"

Slavic Review ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 614-624
Author(s):  
Thomas Gaiton Marullo
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
World View ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Emigre Writers

Despite their often disparate recollections of Ivan Bunin, émigré writers, critics, and memoirists agree that he was vociferously opposed to the fiction of Fedor Dostoevski, especially his major novels. They recall repeatedly that Bunin looked upon Dostoevskii as a “loathsome writer” and that he indicted Crime and Punishment, The Possessed, and The Brothers Karamazov for what he believed to be their strained atmosphere, brittle construction, unwieldy style, and, most importantly, their monotonous characters, especially conscience-stricken criminals and suffering heroines. The émigré literati further contend that Bunin found particularly abhorrent the Christian mysticism of Dostoevskii’s world view. In Bunin’s opinion, they report, the ontological flights and falls of Raskol'nikov and Alesha Karamazov were but a lame excuse to “have Christ shoved into vulgar novels.” Valentin Kataev recalls that Bunin raged apropos of Raskol'nikov: “Dostoevskii sticks your nose into impossible and inconceivable abominations, into spiritual filth—From here has come everything that has happened to Russia: Decadence, Modernism, Revolution, young people who are infected to the marrow of their bones with Dostoevshchina—[ who are] without direction in their lives, confused, physically and spiritually crippled by war, not knowing what to do with their strengths and talents, at times, their exceptional, even colossal talents.” Significantly, Bunin’s dislike of Dostoevskii continued until his death. A. Bakhrakh reports that on November 7, 1953, the last day of Bunin’s life, the writer promised that “should I live and God give me strength, I will try again to remove Dostoevskii from his pedestal.”

scholarly journals On the Metaplot of Reading Aloud in the Novels by F. M. Dostoevsky

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
O. D. Kosheleva ◽  
◽  
N. V. Prashcheruk ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Aloud ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Raising Of Lazarus

The article is devoted to the four episodes of reading the passages from Holy Scripture in the F. M. Dostoevsky’s novels. These include The Raising of Lazarus in “Crime and Punishment”, Messages to the Angel of the Laodocian Church in “Demons” and the Marriage at Cana in “The Brothers Karamazov”. There are several shared characteristics of the content and structure in noted episodes. First of all, there are always heroes-who-read and heroes-who-listen. Secondly, while heroes-who-read are usually having a strong faith, heroes-who-listen are facing the crisis of belief. Finally, each passage is meant to be an allegory, by which the readers are trying to point a new way in life for listeners, and motivate them to work on themselves instead of giving them ready answers. In conclusion, all of the above-mentioned episodes could be summarized into a metaplot of reading in the F. M. Dostoevsky’s novels.

scholarly journals A Metaphor of Freedom or an Allegory of Suicide? “America” in Dostoevsky’s Works

2021 ◽  
pp. 8-33
Author(s):  
Sergei A. Kibalnik
Keyword(s):  
Russian Literature ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
Black Swans ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

For the Russian socialists, “America” was the promised land — a kind of metaphor of absolute freedom, making possible full self-realization of every person. In Dostoevsky's The Demons, Russian socialists Shatov and Kirillov find their way to America, subsequently break with the ideas of socialism, but nevertheless perish — either as a result of his past (Shatov), or his atheism (Kirillov). It is not without reason that even for Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment America also means the futility of the exodus for a Russian person who is not free from shame and conscience, and Svidrigailov's expression “to go to America” even turned out to be an allegory of suicide. This symbolism is to a certain extent preserved in Russian literature after Dostoevsky. The article demonstrates this by examples of Chekhov's play The Seagull and Gazdanov's story “Black Swans”. Although plots and images of the Crime and Punishment, Demons and The Brothers Karamazov differ, the similar artistic dialectics is observed in Dostoevsky's last novel, which, according to some researchers, allegedly ends with Dmitry Karamazov's flight to America. Unlike Herzen and Chernyshevsky, “America” in Dostoevsky's works appears not so much as a metaphor of freedom, but rather as an allegory of suicide.

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.

scholarly journals Justice, Truth, Crime, and Punishment: The Brothers Karamazov Jury Trial

Elements ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Lynne Coscia
Keyword(s):  
Jury Trial ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
The Brothers Karamazov ◽  
Brothers Karamazov

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