Dostoevsky's Endgame: the Projected Sequel To the Brothers Karamazov1

Rice, James L.

doi:10.1163/187633106x00032

Cited by 6 publications

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“…The first point of departure between the two is found in the fact that Smerdjakov possesses none of the redeeming qualities of Myshkin, whose seizures become the conduit for the creation (or recognition) of a form of value, with the extraordinary epiphany that the moment before each epileptic episode may even "be worth a lifetime." 25 The second fundamental disparity is that Smerdjakov constitutes an idiosyncratically Russian brand of degenerate: he is conflict-ridden over the God question, he has been failed by the moral obligations of his nation (in the guise of Fyodor Karamazov's neglect and scorn), and inhabits a reality inescapably riddled with poverty. Meta-textually, the first clue of Dostoevsky's stance on the precepts of Degeneration Theory is precisely the bifurcation in the choices of these two characters: both are surface-level degenerates on account of their epilepsy, but only Smerdjakov can be truly sick because of his Godlessness.…”

Section: Dostoevsky and The Criminal Typementioning

confidence: 99%

“…As retribution, the general has the boy stripped and chased 54 Potentially echoing Turgenev's opus. 55 A useful and brief overview of the varied sources can be found in Rice (2006). 56 The interwoven nature of the religious side of man in everyday matters is best incarnated by the pelting of Ilyusha and Alyosha's quasiepiphanic appearance.…”

Section: Final Remarks On the Trial Alyosha And Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Degeneration Theory and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

Sciarrini

2024

ijls

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I am here interested in presenting a comparative analysis between the strand of thought known as ‘Degeneration Theory’ and Dostoevsky’s last major novel, The Brothers Karamazov. I will provide a brief contextualization about the influence of Degeneration Theory on Russian thought, postulating that the principal Russian preoccupation concerning degenerate attitudes – above all in Dostoevsky - consists in the disease of moral nihilism. I proceed by outlining the criminal type in The Brothers Karamazov by focalizing my inquiry around the figure of the illegitimate epileptic brother Smerdjakov. My main arguments around the question of social and physiological degeneration will be developed in the subsection devoted to the relationship between poverty and children, whose humility, it is argued, represents Dostoevsky’s answer to the death of God and the moral bankruptcy enacted by nihilistic tendencies. In the third segment I will analyse the maddening outcomes of this disease in my discussion of Ivan Karamazov. Lastly, I will venture into a more unreserved discussion about the purported sequel to The Brothers Karamazov. This study seeks to emphasize the importance in the relationship between characters and the God question, ultimately claiming that for Dostoevsky physical degeneration is deployed as a physiological counterpart for the chief concern of many degenerationist narratives: the spiritual degradation of the individual soul and of the integrity of civilization.

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Section: Dostoevsky and The Criminal Typementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Final Remarks On the Trial Alyosha And Revolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Degeneration Theory and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

Sciarrini

2024

ijls

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“…В новейших исследованиях она теснейшим образом сочетается с третьей, с перспективой риторической поэтики. Эти взаимосвязанные перспективы можно подвести к теоретической позиции, представляющей предисловие литературного произведения как часть рамочного комплекса, который Жерар Женетт (GENETTE 1982) определяет в качестве паратекста. Для объяснения введения «От автора» в свете нарратологического и риторического подходов, контекстуализированных пониманием паратекстуальных структур, мы будем останавливаться на чрезвычайно интересных и богатых интерпретациях Льюиса Бэгби и Ольги Юрьевны Ткаченко.…”

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«От Автора» К Читателю «Братьев Карамазовых» Тайна, Чудо И Авторитет – Герменевтическая Перспектива В Предисловии Романа

Kroó¹

2021

SlavVaria

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“From the Author” to the Reader of The Brothers Karamazov. Mystery, Miracle and Authority – Hermeneutic Perspectives in the Preface to the Novel. The paper offers new aspects to the critical reading of the widely interpreted preface “From the Author” in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov. Giving a synthesis of the historical, narratological and rethorical perspectives in the interpretation of the given text, this new approach enters a systematic metapoetic explanation. The semantic units examined lead to the triple motif construction, familiar from “The Grand Inqusitor” – mystery, miracle and authority. It is mystery that stands at the focus of the examination within the problem context of cognition, understanding, interpretation. The internally contradictory idea of elucidating something which is still unclear is projected upon such time concepts as pred – post, beginning – end, the actual moment and processuality. These motifs make reference both to the modelled reality and the modelling literary discourse, metapoetically setting a reading strategy for the recipient.

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From Myshkin to Marxism: The Role of Dostoevsky Reception in Lukács's Revolutionary Ethics

Westerman¹

2017

Mod. Intell. Hist.

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For European literati of the early twentieth century, Fyodor Dostoevsky represented a mythically Russian spirituality in contrast to a soulless, rationalized West. One such enthusiast was Georg Lukács, who in 1915 began a never-completed book about Dostoevsky's work, a model of spiritual community that could redeem a fallen world. Though framing his analysis in the language and themes of broader Dostoevsky reception, Lukács used this idiom innovatively to go beyond the reactionary implications this model might connote. Highlighting similarities with Max Weber's account of political ethics, I argue that Lukács developed an ethic derived from his reading of Dostoevsky, which focused on the idea of a hero defined by an ability to resolve the specific ethical dilemma of adherence to duty and moral law on the one hand, and, on the other, the need to restore spontaneous human community at a time when the social institutions embodying such laws had fallen into decay. Crucially, he deployed the same framework after his conversion to Marxism to justify revolutionary terror. However different his position from Dostoevsky's, it was through engagement with these novels that Lukács not only clarified his thought but also came to identify Lenin as a Dostoevskyan hero figure.

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Dostoevsky's Endgame: the Projected Sequel To the Brothers Karamazov1

Cited by 6 publications

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Degeneration Theory and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

Degeneration Theory and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov

«От Автора» К Читателю «Братьев Карамазовых» Тайна, Чудо И Авторитет – Герменевтическая Перспектива В Предисловии Романа

From Myshkin to Marxism: The Role of Dostoevsky Reception in Lukács's Revolutionary Ethics

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