Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky listen ▶) (November 11, (October 30, Old Style), 1821, – February 9, (January 28, O.S.), 1881, St. Petersburg, Russia) was one of the greatest of Russian writers, whose works have a profound and lasting effect on twentieth-century fiction. Often featuring characters with disparate and extreme states of the mind, his works exhibit both an uncanny grasp in human psychology as well as penetrating analyses in the politics, social and spiritual state of Russia of his time. Many of his best-known works are prophetic as precursors of modern-day thought and preoccupations. He is sometimes said to be a founder of existentialism, most notably in Notes from Underground, which has been described by Walter Kaufmann as "the best overture for existentialism ever written".
Biography
Fyodor was the second of seven children born to Mikhail and Maria Dostoevsky. His father was a nobleman, his mother from a family of merchants. Shortly after his mother died of tuberculosis in 1837, he and his brother Mikhail were sent to the Military Engineering Academy at St. Petersburg. Their father, a retired military surgeon who served as a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor in Moscow, died in 1839. Rumors circulated that Mikhail Dostoevsky was murdered by his own serfs, who reportedly became enraged during one of Mikhail's drunken fits of violence, restrained him, and poured vodka into his mouth until he drowned. Most likely Mikhail died of natural causes, and a neighboring landowner invented this story of a peasant rebellion so he could buy the estate cheaply. Regardless of what may have actually happened, Sigmund Freud focused on this tale in his famous, but largely discredited article, Dostoevsky and Parricide (1928).
Arrest and Imprisonment
Dostoevsky served in the Corps of Engineers until 1844, when he resigned his commission to become a full time writer. His first novel, Poor Folk was well-received by the famous literary critic, Vissarion Belinksy. His second novel, The Double, served as portent for his later psychological interests. Just as his career was starting to take off, Dostoevsky was arrested and imprisoned in 1849 for engaging in revolutionary activity against Tsar Nikolai I. On November 16 that year he was sentenced to death for anti-government activities linked to a liberal intellectual group, the Petrashevsky Circle, a circle of liberal intellectuals who met on Fridays to discuss Fourierist socialism and the emancipation of the serfs. After a mock execution in which he was blindfolded and ordered to stand outside in freezing weather awaiting to be shot by a firing squad, Dostoevsky's sentence was commuted to a number of years of exile performing hard labor at a katorga prison camp in Omsk, Siberia. The incidence of epileptic seizures, to which he was predisposed, increased during this period. He was released from prison in 1854, and was required to serve in the Siberian Regiment. Dostoevsky spent the following five years as a corporal (and latterly lieutenant) in the Regiment's Seventh Line Battalion stationed at the fortress of Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan.
This was a turning point in the author's life. Dostoevsky abandoned his earlier liberal sentiments. He became politically conservative and embraced Orthodoxy. He began an affair with, and later married, Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, the widow of an acquaintance in Siberia who would die of consumption several years later.
Return to St. Petersburg
In 1860, he returned to St. Petersburg, where he began a ran a literary journal, Time with his older brother Mikhail. After it was shut down by the government for an unfortunate article by their friend, Nikolai Strakhov, they began another unsuccessful journal, Epoch. Dostoevsky was devastated by his wife's death in 1864, followed shortly thereafter by his brother's death. Financially crippled by business debts and the need to provide for his brother's widow and children, Dostoevsky sank into a deep depression, frequenting gambling parlors and accumulating massive losses at the tables.
Dostoevsky suffered from an acute gambling compulsion as well as from its consequences. By one account Crime and Punishment, possibly his best known novel, was completed in a mad hurry because Dostoevsky was in urgent need of an advance from his publisher. He had been left practically penniless after a gambling spree. Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler simultaneously in order to satisfy an agreement with his publisher Stellovsky who, if he did not receive a new work, would have claimed the copyrights to all of Dostoyevsky's writing.
Motivated by the dual wish to escape his creditors at home and to visit the casinos abroad, Dostoevsky traveled to Western Europe. There, he attempted to rekindle a love affair with Apollinaria (Polina) Suslova, a young university student with whom he had had an affair several years prior, but she refused his marriage proposal. Dostoevsky was heartbroken, but soon met Anna Snitkina, a twenty-year-old stenographer whom he married in 1867. This period resulted in the writing of his greatest books. From 1873 to 1881 he vindicated his earlier journalistic failures by publishing a monthly journal full of short stories, sketches, and articles on current events — the Writer's Diary. The journal was an enormous success.
In 1877 Dostoevsky gave a controversial keynote eulogy at the funeral of his friend, the poet Nekrasov. In 1880, shortly before he died, he gave his famous Pushkin speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin monument in Moscow.
In his later years, Fyodor Dostoevsky lived for a long time at the resort of Staraya Russa which was closer to St Petersburg and less expensive than German resorts. He died on January 28 (O.S.), 1881 and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, St. Petersburg, Russia.
==Major Works==
From the time of his return to St. Petersburg, until the end of his life, Dostoevsky wrote some of the most important novels in history. Notes from Underground, published in 1864, ironically became the founding document of twentieth century existentialism. Written in part as a response to N. G. Chernyshevsky's socialist utopian What is to Be Done, it demonstrates that human beings are at bottom quite capable of acting against their own best rational interest, which Chernyshevsky and others had touted as the anthropoligical principle that would lead humankind into progress and freedom. Part One reads something like the ravings of a lunatic, a forty-year old Petersburg intellectual who expounds on his "philosophy" in a rambling, disjointed diatribe. What becomes clear is that this underground man is the dark side of human nature: a neurotic, self-conscious, misanthropic hypochondriac. By simply portraying this aspect of human nature, Dostoevsky undermines the pretentions in socialist utopianism.
''Crime and Punishment'' is one of the most beloved novels ever written, although there are some dissenters, such as 20th Century Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov. Like all great novels, it operates on many different levels at once. It is a first-rate crime story, although unlike the conventional "who dunnit," the murder is presented early in the narrative, and the rest of the novel represents both an attempt to unravel its motive, but also the resolution of the evil deed in its anti-hero, Rodion Raskolnikov's eventual confession. This crime thriller and spiritual allegory is also, first and foremost, the tale of a dysfunctional family. Raskolnikov's "superman theory," which predated and clearly influenced that of German philosopher [Friedrich Nietzsche]], was merely a thought experiment until he learns through a letter from home that his his sister, Dunya, is throwing her life away to marry a scoundrel in order to save him and secure his future. Further, he learns that his mother is coming to Petersburg, apparently to better organize and run his life. The brilliance of the narrative lies in Dostoevsky's ability to weave these narrative threads together.
The Possessed is widely seen as a revolutionary allegory that foreshadows events a generation later. The title literally means "demons," and the collection of characters, from the Luciferian Stavrogin, to the revolutionary organizer Verkhovensky, to the madman Kirilov, a nihilist who sets out to kill himself to prove God's nonexistence, but eventually kills himself in despair, is a veritable demonology.
The Brothers Karamazov was Dostoevsky's last, and perhaps greatest novel. Like ''Crime and Punishment'', it is a religious and moral allegory rooted in the struggles of one family, Fyodor Karamazov and his three sons, Dmitri, Ivan and Alyosha. It is widely understood that each of the sons represents a different human faculty or quality. Dmitri is the sensualist, Ivan the intellectual and Alyosha the spiritual element. Like ''Crime and Punishment'', the action of the novel centers around a murder mystery, as Fyodor is killed and Dmitri is convicted of the murder. While innocent of this deed, the novel raises larger questions of innocence and guilt, and ultimately all the brothers are implicated on some level in the murder. Dmitri and his father are rivals for Grushenka, which forms the basis of his conviction. Ivan provides the rational for the deed, that was committed by Smerdyakov, Fyodor's valet and reputed to be his bastard son. Only the saintly Alyosha played no part in the actual murder, but he nonetheless feels guilty for his inability to prevent the murder.
Influence
Dostoevsky's influence cannot be overemphasized—from Herman Hesse to Marcel Proust, William Faulkner, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Henry Miller, Yukio Mishima and Gabriel García Márquez—virtually no great 20th century writer has escaped his long shadow (rare dissenting voices include Vladimir Nabokov, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and, more ambiguously, D.H. Lawrence). American novelist Ernest Hemingway also cited Dostoevsky in his autobiographic books, as a major influence on his work. Essentially a writer of myth (and in this respect sometimes compared to Herman Melville), Dostoevsky has created an opus of immense vitality and almost hypnotic power characterized by the following traits: feverishly dramatized scenes (conclaves) where his characters are, frequently in scandalous and explosive atmosphere, passionately engaged in Socratic dialogues à la Russe; the quest for God, the problem of Evil and suffering of the innocents haunt the majority of his novels; characters fall into a few distinct categories: humble and self-effacing Christians (prince Myshkin, Sonya Marmeladova, Alyosha Karamazov), self-destructive nihilists (Svidrigailov, Smerdyakov, Stavrogin, the underground man), cynical debauchers (Fyodor Karamazov), rebellious intellectuals (Raskolnikov, Ivan Karamazov); also, his characters are driven by ideas rather than by ordinary biological or social imperatives.
Dostoevsky's novels are compressed in time (many cover only a few days) and this enables the author to get rid of one of the dominant traits of realist prose, the corrosion of human life in the process of the time flux — his characters primarily embody spiritual values, and these are, by definition, timeless. Other obsessive themes include suicide, wounded pride, collapsed family values, spiritual regeneration through suffering (the most important motif), rejection of the West and affirmation of Russian Orthodoxy and Czarism. Literary scholars such as Bakhtin have characterized his work as 'polyphonic': unlike other novelists, Dostoevsky does not appear to aim for a 'single vision', and beyond simply describing situations from various angles, Dostoevsky engendered fully dramatic novels of ideas where conflicting views and characters are left to develop unevenly into unbearable crescendo.
By common critical consensus one among the handful of universal world authors, along with Dante, Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Victor Hugo and a few others, Dostoevsky has decisively influenced 20th century literature, existentialism and expressionism in particular.
Major works
- Poor Folk (1846)
- The Double: A Petersburg Poem (1846)
- Netochka Nezvanova (1849)
- The Village of Stepanchikovo (or The Friend of the Family) (1859)
- The Insulted and Humiliated (or The Insulted and the Injured) (1861)
- The House of the Dead (1862)
- A Nasty Story (1862)
- Notes from Underground (or Letters from the Underworld) (1864)
- Crime and Punishment (1866)
- The Gambler (1867)
- The Idiot (1868)
- The Possessed (or Demons or The Devils) (1872)
- The Raw Youth (or The Adolescent) (1875)
- The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
External links and references
- FyodorDostoevsky.com - The Definitive Dostoevsky fan site
- Fyodor Dostoevsky's brief biography and works
- Works by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Project Gutenberg
- Selected Dostoevsky e-texts from Penn Librarys digital library project
- Full texts of some Dostoevsky's works in the original Russian
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Biography, ebooks, quotations, and other resources
- Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Vintage Classics, 1992, New York.
- Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, introduction by Joseph Frank. Bantam Books, 1987, New York.
- Some photos of places and statues that are reminiscent of Dostoevsky and his work
bg:Фьодор Достоевски bs:Fjodor Dostojevski ca:Fiodor Dostoievski cs:Fjodor Michajlovič Dostojevskij da:Fjodor Mikhajlovitj Dostojevskij de:Fjodor Michailowitsch Dostojewski et:Fjodor Dostojevski el:Φιοντόρ Ντοστογιέφσκι es:Fiódor Dostoievski eo:Fjodor DOSTOJEVSKIJ fr:Fedor Dostoïevski hr:Fjodor Dostojevski io:Fyodor Dostoyevski it:Fëdor Mikhailovič Dostoevskij he:פיודור מיכאילוביץ' דוסטויבסקי hu:Fjodor Mihajlovics Dosztojevszkij mk:Фјодор Достоевски nl:Fjodor Dostojevski ja:フョードル・ドストエフスキー no:Fjodor Mikhajlovitsj Dostojevskij pl:Fiodor Dostojewski pt:Fiódor Dostoiévski ru:Достоевский, Фёдор Михайлович sk:Fiodor Michajlovič Dostojevskij sl:Fjodor Mihajlovič Dostojevski sr:Фјодор Михајлович Достојевски fi:Fjodor Dostojevski sv:Fjodor Dostojevskij tl:Fëdor Dostoevskij tr:Fyodor Mikailoviç Dostoyevski uk:Достоєвський Федір Михайлович wa:Fyodor Mixhaylovitch Dostoyevskiy zh:费奥多尔·陀思妥耶夫斯基
Revision as of 05:30, 17 October 2005; view current revision
Burgess|David Burgess]] 19:40, 10 November 2005 (UTC)).
[edit] Works and Influence Dostoyevsky's tomb at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery.Dostoevsky's influence cannot be overemphasized—from Herman Hesse to Marcel Proust, William Faulkner, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Henry Miller, Yukio Mishima and Gabriel García Márquez—virtually no great 20th century writer has escaped his long shadow (rare dissenting voices include Vladimir Nabokov, Henry James, Joseph Conrad and, more ambiguously, D.H. Lawrence). American novelist Ernest Hemingway also cited Dostoevsky in his autobiographic books, as a major influence on his work. Style Dostoevsky is often accused on not being a stylist. His prose is considered “messy,” especially in comparison with someone like Tolstoy, whose language is cleaner and whose plots are almost mathematical in their precision. However, Dostoevsky’s lack of style stems from his attempt to give his characters free reign. He creates situations that permits disparate characters to come into contact with one another, and allows the conflicts between them to play out. In fact, one characteristic feature of Dostoevsky’s style is that the action frequently degenerates into feverishly dramatized scandal scenes which appear to reach their depth, only to have something even more scandalous occur. The period in was Dostoevsky wrote was dominated by realism. The milieu of the story is usually described in great detail as an indication of character. Dostoevsky’s novels contain very little detail about milieu. His novels are compressed in time (many cover only a few days) and space is also compressed sometimes for artistic effect. (For example, much of the action in Crime and Punishment takes place in basements, hallways, foyers, and other assorted cramped spaces.) He refers to this style as “realism in a higher sense.” In other words, he in not interested in normal, everyday life, but in extraordinary states of mind. When Tolstoy describes a dinner between two men, such as he does in the beginning of Anna Karenina, he will take pages to describe the restaurant, the settings, the dishes – everything about the encounter. When Dostoevsky describes a dinner meeting in The Devils (1872), we are no even sure whether the characters even eat. Characters That is because his characters are are driven by ideas rather than by ordinary biological or social imperatives. Most represent a single idea: the humble and self-effacing Christians (Prince Myshkin, Sonya Marmeladova, Alyosha Karamazov, Father Zossima), the self-destructive nihilists (Svidrigailov, Smerdyakov, Stavrogin, the underground man), the cynical debaucher (Fyodor Karamazov), and the rebellious intellectuals (Raskolnikov, Ivan Karamazov.) The goal of Dostoevsky’s art is to allow full expression and interaction between these ideas.
Themes While his characters can be easily categorized, his ideas cannot. Anti-semite, Christian prophet, existentialist philosopher, depth psychologist, he is all of these and perhaps more. His novel, Besy, (literally, Demons) translated as either The Devils or The Possessed, is often credited with forseeing the coming of Communism to Russia. He feared that rationalism would lead to disasterous consequences in Russia because, as he put it, “without God, everything is permitted.” Criticism Dostoevsky’s novels have been endlessly dissected and analyzed by literary scholars too numerous to mention. Of note are two 20th century critics for whom his texts became models and test cases. Russian critic, Bakhtin praised them as models of dialogism. Every word, or idea, is confronted with another and placed in dialogue with it. Bakhtin characterized his work as 'polyphonic': unlike other novelists, Dostoevsky does not appear to aim for a “single vision.” Rather, he allows each idea to have free reign in the interplay of ideas. In this regard, Dostoevsky is more like a playwrite and his novels are “dialogic.” French critic, Rene Girard, saw in Dostoevsky’s novels a proof text of the operation of his theory of mimetic desire, in which human desire is imitative of the desires of others. By common critical consensus he is on a short list of world authors, along with Dante, Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Victor Hugo and a few others, whose readership and impact are too broad to fully categorize.
[edit] Major works Poor Folk (1846) The Double: A Petersburg Poem (1846) Netochka Nezvanova (1849) The Village of Stepanchikovo (or The Friend of the Family) (1859) The Insulted and Humiliated (or The Insulted and the Injured) (1861) The House of the Dead (1862) A Nasty Story (1862) Notes from Underground (or Letters from the Underworld) (1864) Crime and Punishment (1866) The Gambler (1867) The Idiot (1868) The Possessed (or Demons or The Devils) (1872) The Raw Youth (or The Adolescent) (1875) The Brothers Karamazov (1880) [edit] External links and references Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Fyodor DostoevskyFyodorDostoevsky.com - The Definitive Dostoevsky fan site Fyodor Dostoevsky's brief biography and works Works by Fyodor Dostoevsky at Project Gutenberg Selected Dostoevsky e-texts from Penn Librarys digital library project Full texts of some Dostoevsky's works in the original Russian Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Biography, ebooks, quotations, and other resources Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Vintage Classics, 1992, New York. Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, translated by Constance Garnett, introduction by Joseph Frank. Bantam Books, 1987, New York. Some photos of places and statues that are reminiscent of Dostoevsky and his work Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoevsky" Categories: 1821 births | 1881 deaths | Russian novelists | Russian short story writers ViewsArticleDiscussionEdit this pageHistory Personal toolsCreate account / log in Navigation Main Page Community portal Current events Recent changes Random article Help Contact us Donations Search
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New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
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