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

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.

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-244
Author(s):  
Meruert B. Yeleussizova

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.


Author(s):  
Tatiana Kashina

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-18
Author(s):  
Barry D. Liss

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.


2021 ◽  
pp. 128-154
Author(s):  
Alexander L. Renansky ◽  

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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
Ruth Karin Lévai

Taking as its starting point the tension between the human condition as subject to the law of reason while belonging to the world of sense in establishing the categorical imperative as described by Kant, this article explores how belonging to the world of sense may be equated with randomness and the temporal as the presupposition for morality in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and Borges's ‘The Garden of Forking Paths'. The article also discusses the two authors' views of time and eternity as expressed in their nonfiction.


Author(s):  
Irina V.  Logvinova

The article analyzes F. M. Dostoevsky’s idea that beauty will save the world, with reference to the novel “Demons” (1871-1872). This idea is expressed in various contexts in the novels “The Idiot” (1869) and “The Brothers Karamazov” (1878). The analysis of beauty as the measure of spirituality in the novel “Demons” shows that beauty can really save the world from destruction, since the deviation towards the “ideal of Sodom” is a dead end.


2021 ◽  
Vol XII (38) ◽  
pp. 147-160
Author(s):  
Marina Koprivica

F. M. Dostoevsky is one of the world's great writers who, while preserving the autonomy of a literary work, incorporated into his works issues of an ethical-philosophical and religious character. He permeated his works with echoes of these topics, but, in addition to the literary stamp, in some chapters he concretized ethical-philosophical and religious issues, for example, in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", in the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor”. Concerning his spirituality and his perspective on life and society, Dostoevsky belongs to writers whose moral norms are the foundation and imperative of their poetics. He paid special attention to those who were "insulted and humiliated, ", the so-called "little people", especially children who suffer in the world of adults. In this light, we can also say that the title of the chapter "Rebellion" is a seal of Dostoevsky's work, and our work focuses on the central theme of "Rebellion" - the relationship of adult characters to the suffering of children in the world, and the very purpose of punishment for crimes which cannot adequately be redeemed. By analyzing this key chapter of the novel, through concrete images of the suffering of children and the attitudes of Ivan Karamazov, we emphasize the motif of crime and punishment in "The Brothers Karamazov": the question of freedom, that is, free will, but also love towards people who are close, which Dostoevsky problematizes, especially in the parent-child relationship. We also point out the creative task of this Russian writer; his effort to solve the eternal enigma of man as a being, through which the writer wants to solve the riddle of God. Ivan's rebellion against such an arrangement of God is also shown, in which the suffering of the innocent is allowed, with the hero's rejections of future harmony at the expense of the suffering of the innocent and powerless. In this chapter, which has so far received little attention in literary criticism, Dostoevsky also questioned the eternal questions of man through the experience of lived truth, with the view that there is no goal worthy of a single human life or a child's tears. In his complex task, synthesizing in the sphere of literature, ethical-philosophical and religious attitudes, Dostoevsky determines the essence of man and his moral values, opposing the postulates of the notion of unconditional love to rational will, determined by social, generally accepted factors. Based on a wider range of contrasts and contradictory attitudes of Dostoevsky's heroes, especially Ivan Karamazov in "Rebellion", from atheism, faith and agnosticism, to rebellion and preaching, we conclude that these categories are strongly intertwined in the rich literary amplitude of Dostoevsky - writer and ethicist, philosopher, and preacher in literature - and not only permeate, but always end with the apotheosis of a love for man, especially for the so-called "little man", and for unprotected children, indicating the author’s strong compassion for the suffering of the innocent.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124
Author(s):  
Valentina Stepchenkova

The aim of the research study is to explain the artistic theodicy of F. M. Dostoevsky. The justification of God before the world he created, in which evil forces are allowed to act, is one of the principal themes in the novel. In those scenes of the novel that raise the theme of innocuous suffering, Dostoevsky offers to comprehend the meaning of suffering. Dostoevsky sees it as not only as a result of the influence of an evil force, but also as a path to perfection for human beings and a way to experience communication with God. Dostoevsky shows that from a Christian spiritual perception of sorrows, one can find the strength to overcome them and see the highest sacred meaning in them. This conclusion is not based on the optimistic theodicy of Leibniz, but only reveals the goodness of God, who is capable of turning the evil, which entered the world along with the Fall, into an opportunity for a person to rise to a new spiritual level. The most important argument of theodicy is love: God’s love for man and man’s capacity to love, overcoming evil. Because of the lack of love, guided only by the “Euclidean mind,” Ivan returns his “entry ticket” to harmony. The logical conclusion of the research study states that Dostoevsky’s key to theodicy and the main value in the moral self-determination of man is the belief in the immortality of the soul and the all-goodness of the Creator.


2021 ◽  
Vol XII (38) ◽  
pp. 81-101
Author(s):  
Lazar Milentijević

The article deals with the theme of a "lay monastery" (“монастырь в миру“), which became one of the important milestones of spiritual life and the life of the Сhurch in the late 19th and 20th centuries and which was reflected in the later works of Dostoevsky. According to Russian thinkers, there was an obvious need to overcome the spiritual isolation of the Church, which should show a desire to merge with the world and manifest heartfelt and vital work on this path. However, the new form and way of salvation are seen as an impulse of humanity to overcome the gap and strengthen connections with the Church. Dostoevsky thought that in the fluid and already different spiritual and historical reality, it was of the utmost importance to find or create new ways of salvation and unification. The Brothers Karamazov tells of the increasing social influence of hermits’ (подвижник). Dostoevsky suggested that their influence was utilitarian in nature and could be associated with the upper limit of Russian medieval culture in the 17th century, when the cult of saints was significantly strengthened as they were revered primarily as real helpers in secular affairs. Sanctity in Russia was often achieved by following the paths of martyrdom, passion-bearing, asceticism in its extreme forms, hermitry, mysticism and foolishness (юродство) rather than through constant, consistent, and purposeful self-discipline and abstention. However, the unifying factor is "Labor with Christ", where both joy about the world and spiritual ennobling are revealed, as Dostoevsky illustrates a path on which there is the possibility of expedient union between the laity and the Church. In the last chapter, in which Alyosha gathers the children and makes a speech, the mission of the "lay monastery" is carried out, because he manages to unite people in the name of Ilyushechka and his expected resurrection, thus, in the name of Christ. Each thing, having an absolute meaning, exists not only in a passive correlation to the other, but also takes action, fills it up and is being filled up. Only in a universal synthesis of this type, does the true miracle of universal interconnection live. Here, we are witnessing the mysterious communion of the boys and their entry into the mystical Church. One can use Lurie's successful comparison of two ways of life, secular and monastic, with Law and Grace (159). The lay monastery corresponds to the meeting of the Old Testament law and evangelical freedom, as two Christian paths that should exist in constant conjunction. Dostoevsky's thesis once again confirms the idea of Solovyov: "The Church is there where the people are, united by mutual brotherly love and free unanimity, who become a receptacle of God's grace, which is the true essence and vital principle of the Church, that forms one spiritual organism" (1914, 4: 658).


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