Dostoevsky in Context

Literature in Context

by Deborah A. Martinsen (Editor), Olga Maiorova (Editor)

This volume explores the Russia where the great writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–81), was born and lived. It focuses not only on the Russia depicted in Dostoevsky's works, but also on the Russian life that he and his contemporaries on social practices and historical developments, political and cultural institutions, religious beliefs, ideological trends, artistic conventions and literary genres. Chapters by leading scholars illuminate this broad context, offer insights into Dostoevsky's reflections on his age, and examine the expression of those reflections in his writing. Each chapter investigates a specific context and suggests how we might understand Dostoevsky in relation to it. Since Russia took so much from Western Europe throughout the imperial period, the volume also locates the Russian experience within the context of Western thought and practices, thereby offering a multidimensional view of the unfolding drama of Russia versus the West in the nineteenth century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature

354 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2015

About the author

Deborah A. Martinsen is Assistant to the Director of the Core Curriculum at Columbia University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature. She is the author of Surprised by Shame: Dostoevsky's Liars and Narrative Exposure.

Reviews

[AC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 2001 book contains a large collection of short essay that cover a wide number topics on Russian society and thought that are essential background for understanding the works of Dostoevsky. Well worth browsing and reading in.

[Caroline · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this after reading The Brothers Karamazov, hoping to get some additional insight. I did learn some interesting things, but others I simply found the information uninteresting. Each essay was intended to stand on its own, and there was a substantial amount of repeated information between different essays.

The things I found most interesting were:

* The legal system in Russia had recently been revised at the time of The Brothers Karamazov, and juries were relatively new. That cast the trial scene in a different light.

* Dostoevsky supported himself via his writing and translation, whereas many other famous Russian authors from the time, e.g. Tolstoy, had other sources of wealth. This was challenging in Russia, as literacy was only about 21%, compared to over 90% in England and France.

* Dostoevsky had to deal with potential censorship, since it was not allowed to write against the Orthodox church or the autocracy. One way he dealt with this was to write different characters espusing different viewpoints. If a censor complained about the viewpoint, he would say it was only that character's opinion, then let the censor know he had another chapter coming soon arguing he opposite viewpoint. Apparently the censors sometimes accepted this. I noticed while reading The Brothers Karamazov that it was difficult for me to tell what the author thought on the issues he discussed, and I thought he did a great job representing strong arguments for different viewpoints. I didn't realize censorship might have played a role in that.