Varen'ka Dobroselova: An Experiment in the Desentimentalization of the Sentimental Heroine in Dostoevskii's Poor Folk

Slavic Review ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 525-533
Author(s):  
Gary Rosenshield
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Sentimental Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Epistolary Form ◽  
Comic Fiction

Ever since its publication the success of Fedor Dostoevskii's first novel Poor Folk has been ascribed primarily to the characterization of its “naturalistic” hero, Makar Devushkin, not to its sentimental heroine, Varen'ka Dobroselova. Although critics have continued to discover new merits in Poor Folk, in the end it is Devushkin who dominates the novel and on whom, in one way or another, most of its virtues depend. Not only is Devushkin the protagonist, he is also at the center of the novel's important innovations in style, theme, and characterization. Dostoevskii took the poor copying clerk, a type that for a decade had been used as a stock device—and most often the butt—of Russian comic fiction, and transformed him into the hero of a tragi-comic sentimental novel. This transformation was much abetted by Dostoevskii's use of the epistolary form— a form common to the sentimental novel of the eighteenth century, but long outdated in Russia by the 1840s—for it permitted the hero to tell his own story and, by so doing, to reveal the sensitive human being behind the comic mask.

scholarly journals Kartezjusz — Lyotard — Dukaj. „Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość” jako propozycja oświecenia po uznaniu końca paradygmatu wielkich narracji

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 169-178
Author(s):  
Gerard Ronge
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Future ◽  
Canonical Texts

The paper explores the philosophical statements emerging from the plot of Jacek Dukaj’s science-fiction novel Perfekcyjna niedoskonałość [The Perfect Imperfection]. The argument of the article states that the Polish novel proposes a complete philosophical model of possible ways of imagining the future which is unique, yet fully coherent with the Enlightenment paradigm. After recapitulating the most important arguments of the mid-century’s discussion about the end of the grand narratives and brief recall of most canonical texts of the period of the Enlightenment, the author analyses ontological presuppositions hidden after the structure of the fictional world created by Dukaj. The novel appears to fully acknowledge the Cartesian dualistic model of the human being (which strongly separates its biological and mental roots) and sets plots in times when all biological limitations have been transgressed. Despite that, both optimistic scenarios of eighteenth-century utopians and catastrophic visions of twentieth-century sci-fi authors have never been fulfilled and the fictional world of the twenty-ninth century appears to be just the same as ours in its core, despite being totally different in terms of its phenomenological appearance.

The Continental Influence on the Eighteenth-Century Novel

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter L. Reed
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Don Quixote ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sentimental Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Prose Fiction ◽  
English Novel ◽  
British Novelists

The eighteenth-century English novel was influenced by earlier prose fiction from the Continent; the English improved what others had invented. Individual novels from the Continent were imitated by British novelists; particular genres first developed abroad were adapted by them as well. Spanish novels like Don Quixote and the picaresque preceded and influenced novels of Defoe, Fielding, Smollett, and Sterne. Seventeenth-century French romances influenced novels of amorous intrigue by Behn, Manley, and Haywood. These in turn provoked the novel of women’s virtuous resistance created by Richardson. Earlier prose fiction from the Continent was translated into English and widely read throughout the eighteenth century. The transnational traffic in fiction flowed in the other direction as well. Rousseau’s enthusiastic embrace of Richardson popularized the transnational genre of the sentimental novel. From the 1770s onwards German fiction became influential in England, and German-derived tales of terror came to dominate the popular British market.

scholarly journals Del héroe romántico al “feminized man” o de la realidad a la fantasía

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aída Díaz Bild
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Alternative Model ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Dominant Male ◽  
Sentimental Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Conduct Books ◽  
Las Mujeres ◽  
Freedom Of Action

ResumenUna de las maneras en las que las mujeres escritoras del siglo XVIII subvierten el discurso de la novela sentimental es creando un tipo de amor alternativo y un héroe que es una excepción a la regla patriarcal, el denominado “feminized man”. Este amante ideal refl eja la ternura, sensibilidad, amabilidad y auto-control que normalmente se asocia con las mujeres y está dispuesto a recortar su poder y derechos para sancionar la independencia y autonomía de la heroína. Se huye así del estereotipo agresivo y dominante que encontramos en las novelas y manuales de conducta de la época y que supone una amenaza para las mujeres, ya que invade su espacio, coartando su libertad de acción y pensamiento. Detrás de la creación de este nuevo héroe está, por supuesto, el deseo de cambiar las relaciones de poder dentro de la pareja. Tanto el amante apasionado como el nuevo “feminized man” están presentes en Memoirs of Modern Philosphers, demostrando así que la novela no puede clasifi carse meramente como anti-jacobina o conservadora, sino que contiene elementos claramente subversivos.Palabras clave: “Feminized man”, amante apasionado, matrimonio, poder, fantasía.AbstractOne way in which eighteenth-century women writers subvert the discourse of the sentimental novel is by creating an alternative model of love and a hero who proves to be an exception to the patriarchal rule. This ideal lover shows the tenderness, sensibility, kindness and self-control that we usually associate with women and is willing to curtail his power and rights in order to sanction the heroine’s independence and autonomy. Thus the stereotype of the aggressive and dominant male which prevailed in the novels and conduct books of the age is avoided: he represents a threat to women, since he invades their space, encroaching on their freedom of action and thought. Behind the creation of this new hero is, of course, the desire to bring about a change in the power relations between the sexes. Both the passionate lover and the new “feminized man” are present in Memoirs of Modern Philosphers, thus showing that the novel cannot be merely classifi ed as anti-jacobin or conservative, but clearly contains subversive elements.Key words: “Feminized man”, passionate lover, marriage, power, fantasy.

Novel and Empire

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markman Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Sentimental Novel ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Slave System ◽  
Creative Potential ◽  
Folk Beliefs ◽  
Oriental Tale ◽  
The Relationship

This essay examines novel’s relation with empire through the relationship between the form of the novel and the ideology of empire. It analyses the themes of colony and cross-cultural global encounters in popular prose subgenres of the eighteenth century, including the robinsonade, imitations of Crusoe’s island adventures, and the oriental tale, free imitations of the Islamic story collection. Although contemporary discourse on the British Empire argued that it was founded on ideas of liberty, commerce, and Christianity, the problem of slavery presented a powerful contradiction and growing controversy. Depictions of slavery in the sentimental novel advertised the asymmetrical violence endemic to the slave system, contributing to the emerging campaign for the abolition of the slave trade and, eventually, the emancipation of the slaves. Nonetheless, Gothic fictions found creative potential in the terrors of slavery and in folk beliefs derived from slave society, such as obeah and the zombie.

ISU FEMINISME DALAM NOVEL PUTRI KARYA PUTU WIJAYA

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Arriyanti Arriyanti
Keyword(s):  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Women Rights

This paper discusses about issues of feminism in a novel titled Putri written by Putu Wijaya. The discussing about women issues will be analyzed by applying feminism ways of thinking. Issues of feminism will be seen by looking at the main character of the novel. Feminism issues in the novel appear because of the behavior and attitude of the heroine in struggling her will. The rejection toward different gender stereotypes which tends to cut women rights as human being and member of society is the reflection of the heroine‘s attitude.AbstrakTulisan ini mengkaji isu feminisme yang terkandung di dalam novel Putri karya Putu Wijaya. Pembahasan wacana perempuan ini dikupas dengan memanfaatkan kajian feminis. Isu feminisme ini diamati dari tokoh utama cerita, yaitu Putri. Isu feminisme dalam novel Putri muncul karena adanya sikap dan perilaku tokoh utama perempuan dalam mewujudkan dan memperjuangkan keinginannya. Penolakan terhadap perbedaan stereotip gender yang cenderung mengebiri hak-hak perempuan sebagai manusia dan anggota masyarakat merupakan wujud perilaku tersebut.

La transposition profane de l’Exode dans Moïse fiction de Gilles Rozier

2013 ◽  
pp. 174-183
Author(s):  
Piotr Sadkowski
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The Other ◽  
Jewish Tradition ◽  
Human Being ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Jewish Origin ◽  
French Writer ◽  
The World ◽  
Jewish Writers

Throughout the centuries French and Francophone writers were relatively rarely inspired by the figure of Moses and the story of Exodus. However, since the second half of 20th c. the interest of the writers in this Old Testament story has been on the rise: by rewriting it they examine the question of identity dilemmas of contemporary men. One of the examples of this trend is Moïse Fiction, the 2001 novel by the French writer of Jewish origin, Gilles Rozier, analysed in the present article. The hypertextual techniques, which result in the proximisation of the figure of Moses to the reality of the contemporary reader, constitute literary profanation, but at the same time help place Rozier’s text in the Jewish tradition, in the spirit of talmudism understood as an exchange of views, commentaries, versions and additions related to the Torah. It is how the novel, a new “midrash”, avoids the simple antinomy of the concepts of the sacred and the profane. Rozier’s Moses, conscious of his complex identity, is simultaneously a Jew and an Egyptian, and faces, like many contemporary Jewish writers, language dilemmas, which constitute one of the major motifs analysed in the present article. Another key question is the ethics of the prophetism of the novelistic Moses, who seems to speak for contemporary people, doomed to in the world perceived as chaos unsupervised by an absolute being. Rozier’s agnostic Moses is a prophet not of God (who does not appear in the novel), but of humanism understood as the confrontation of a human being with the absurdity of his or her own finiteness, which produces compassion for the other, with whom the fate of a mortal is shared.

Mechanisms for Unity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel K. Cohn, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Black Death ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Church

This chapter investigates changes in mentalities after the Black Death, comparing practices never before analysed in this context—funerary and labour laws and processions to calm God’s anger. While processions were rare or conflictual as in Catania and Messina in 1348, these rituals during later plagues bound communities together in the face of disaster. The chapter then turns to another trend yet to be noticed by historians. Among the multitude of saints and blessed ones canonized from 1348 to the eighteenth century, the Church was deeply reluctant to honour, even name, any of the thousands who sacrificed their lives to succour plague victims, physically or spiritually, especially in 1348: the Church recognized no Black Death martyrs. By the sixteenth century, however, city-wide processions and other communal rituals bound communities together with charity for the poor, works of art, and charitable displays of thanksgiving to long-dead holy men and women.

Theology in the Church of England

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. W. Young
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Ecclesiastical History ◽  
International Reputation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Joseph Butler ◽  
Anglican Theology ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Church

The dismissive characterization of Anglican divinity between 1688 and 1800 as defensive and rationalistic, made by Mark Pattison and Leslie Stephen, has proved more enduring than most other aspects of a Victorian critique of the eighteenth-century Church of England. By directly addressing the analytical narratives offered by Pattison and Stephen, this chapter offers a comprehensive re-evaluation of this neglected period in the history of English theology. The chapter explores the many contributions to patristic study, ecclesiastical history, and doctrinal controversy made by theologians with a once deservedly international reputation: William Cave, Richard Bentley, William Law, William Warburton, Joseph Butler, George Berkeley, and William Paley were vitalizing influences on Anglican theology, all of whom were systematically depreciated by their agnostic Victorian successors. This chapter offers a revisionist account of the many achievements in eighteenth-century Anglican divinity.

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