Dostoevsky and The Idea of Russianness: A New Perspective on Unity and Brotherhood

by Sarah Hudspith

Overview

This book examines Dostoevsky's interest in, and engagement with, "Slavophilism" - a Russian mid-nineteenth century movement of conservative nationalist thought. It explores Dostoevsky's views, as expressed in both his non-fiction and fiction, on the religious, spiritual and moral ideas which he considered to be innately Russian. It concludes that Dostoevsky is an important successor to the Slavophiles, in that he developed their ideas in a more coherent fashion, broadening their moral and spiritual concerns into a more universal message about the true worth of Russia and her people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415754057
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/15/2014
Series:	BASEES/Routledge Series on Russian and East European Studies
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sarah Hudspith is a lecturer at the University of Leeds. Her main area of specialism is nineteenth century Russian literature, especially Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Note on editions, transliteration and translation ix

1 The Slavophile context 1

2 Dostoevsky's ideological position with regard to the Slavophile movement 16

Early work 17

Siberia 23

Vremia, Epokha and pochvennichestvo 38

Diary of a Writer and the Pushkin Speech 64

3 The dramatization in Dostoevski's fiction of themes found in Slavophile thought 88

The condition of rootlessness: the Kushite category 90

Living in sobornost': the Iranian category 128

4 The Iranian text: Slavophile principles applied to the practice of writing 161

Dostoevsky and the Slavophile aesthetic 162

Examples of Slavophile writing in Dostoevsky's œuvre 176

5 Concluding remarks 198

Glossary of Russian terms 202

Notes 204

Bibliography 217

Index 224

Editorial Reviews

'Hudspith's conclusion - that Dostoevsky did not embrace Slavophilism wholesale but used and engaged with the movement to develop his own ideas - is judicious. It is also refreshing to find a recent study of Dostoevsky that assesses him as both artist and thinker.' - SEER

'This book offers a meticulous analysis of the correspondences between Russian identity held by Dostoevsky and by the Slavophiles. Its clear presentation, highly readable format and useful appendices, should make this study a particularly useful text for university courses on nineteenth-century Russian literature.'

- Slavic and East European Journal

From the Publisher