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Themes In Fyodor Dostoevsky's Writings
The themes in the writings of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky (frequently transliterated as "Dostoyevsky"), which consist of novels, novellas, short stories, essays, epistolary novels, poetry, spy fiction and suspense, include suicide, poverty, human manipulation, and morality. Dostoevsky was deeply Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox and religious themes are found throughout his works, especially in those written after his release from prison in 1854. His early works emphasised Literary realism, realism and naturalism (literature), naturalism, as well as social issues such as the differences between the poor and the rich. Elements of gothic fiction, romanticism, and satire can be found in his writings. Dostoyevsky was "an explorer of ideas", greatly affected by the sociopolitical events which occurred during his lifetime. After his release from prison his writing style moved away from what Apollon Grigoryev called the "sentimental naturalism" of his earlier works and bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Existentialism
Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value, existentialist thought often includes concepts such as existential crises, angst, courage, and freedom. Existentialism is associated with several 19th- and 20th-century European philosophers who shared an emphasis on the human subject, despite often profound differences in thought. Among the 19th-century figures now associated with existentialism are philosophers Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, all of whom critiqued rationalism and concerned themselves with the problem of meaning. The word ''existentialism'', however, was not coined until the mid 20th century, during which it became most associated with contemporaneous philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Simone de Beau ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjectivity, imagination, and appreciation of nature in society and culture in response to the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. Romanticists rejected the social conventions of the time in favour of a moral outlook known as individualism. They argued that passion (emotion), passion and intuition were crucial to understanding the world, and that beauty is more than merely an classicism, affair of form, but rather something that evokes a strong emotional response. With this philosophical foundation, the Romanticists elevated several key themes to which they were deeply committed: a Reverence (emotion), reverence for nature and the supernatural, nostalgia, an idealization of the past as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist who pioneered the Gothic fiction, Gothic novel, and a minor poet. Her fourth and most popular novel, ''The Mysteries of Udolpho'', was published in 1794. She is also remembered for ''The Romance of the Forest'' (1791) and ''The Italian (Radcliffe novel), The Italian'' (1797). Her novels combine suspenseful narratives, exotic historical settings, and apparently-supernatural events which turn out to have rational explanations. Radcliffe was famously shy and reclusive, leaving little record of the details of her life. She was born in London to a middle-class family, and was raised between Bath, Somerset and the estate of her uncle Thomas Bentley (manufacturer), Thomas Bentley. In 1787, she married William Radcliffe, a journalist, and moved to London. She published five novels between 1789 and 1797 to increasing acclaim and financial success, becoming one of the highest-paid authors of the eighteent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (; ; – 24 March 1948) was a Russian Empire, Russian philosopher, theologian, and Christian existentialism, Christian existentialist who emphasized the existentialism, existential spiritual significance of Personalism, human freedom and the human person. Biography Nikolai Berdyaev was born near Kiev in 1874 to an aristocratic military family. His father, Alexander Mikhailovich Berdyaev, came from a long line of Russian nobility. Almost all of Alexander Mikhailovich's ancestors served as high-ranking military officers, but In the sixth grade, he left the cadet school and began studying for the matriculation exams for admission to the university. Nikolai's mother, Alina Sergeevna Berdyaeva, was half-French and came from the top levels of both French and Russian nobility. She also had Polish people, Polish, Georgian people, Georgian and Tatar people, Tatar origins. Berdyaev decided on an intellectual career and entered the Kiev University i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolay Strakhov
Nikolay Nikolayevich Strakhov, also transliterated as ''Nikolai Strahov'' (; 16 October 1828 – 24 January 1896) was a Russian philosopher, publicist, journalist and literary critic. He shared the ideals of Pochvennichestvo and was a longtime friend and correspondent of Leo Tolstoy. Strakhov was born in Belgorod, Kursk Governorate in a priest family. After leaving St Petersburg University (unable to afford the fees), in 1851 Strakhov graduated from Saint Petersburg's Main Pedagogical Institute, after which he taught for one year in Odessa, followed by nine years' teaching at a gymnasium in Saint Petersburg. In 1861, Strakhov became a prominent publicist and literary critic. Strakhov worked on the literary journals ''Time'' and ''Epoch'' together with Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Apollon Grigoryev. He became one of the very few close friends of Leo Tolstoy. In the 1870s Nikolay Strakhov wrote his most famous philosophical work ''World as a Whole'' and was among the first (if not the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man
"The Dream of a Ridiculous Man" (, ''Son smeshnovo cheloveka'') is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It chronicles the experiences of a man who decides that there is nothing of any value in the world. Slipping into nihilism with "terrible anguish", he is determined to commit suicide. However, after a chance encounter with a young girl, he begins an inner journey that re-instills a love for his fellow man. The story first appeared in Dostoevsky's self-published monthly journal ''A Writer's Diary'' in 1877. According to literary theorist and Dostoevsky scholar Mikhail Bakhtin, ''The Dream of a Ridiculous Man'' is a modern manifestation of the ancient literary genre Menippean satire, and touches on almost all the themes characteristic of Dostoevsky's large-scale works. Plot summary The story opens with the narrator wandering the streets of St. Petersburg. He is contemplating the ridiculousness of his own life, and his recent realization that nothing matters to him any more. It is th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Writer's Diary
''A Writer's Diary'' (; ''Dnevnik pisatelya'') is a collection of non-fiction and fictional writings by Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent .... Taken from pieces written for a periodical which he both founded and produced, it is normally published in two volumes: the first covering those articles published in the years 1873 and 1876, the second covering those published in the years 1877, 1880 and 1881. ''Diary'' articles The English titles of the following list of works are extracted from Kenneth Lantz's two-volume translations. References {{DEFAULTSORT:Writer's Diary, A 1876 books 1881 books Books by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Diaries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobok
"Bobok" (, ''Bobok'') is a short story by Fyodor Dostoevsky that first appeared in 1873 in his self-published '' Diary of a Writer''. The story consists largely of a dialogue between recently deceased occupants of graves in a cemetery, most of whom are fully conscious and retain all the features of their living personalities. The dialogue is overheard by a troubled writer who has lain down near the graves. The title "Bobok" refers to a nonsensical utterance repeatedly made by one of the cemetery's residents, an almost completely decomposed corpse who is otherwise silent. The writer also reports a kind of auditory hallucination of the word prior to his hearing of the dialogue. The sound suggests "little bean" in Russian, but in the context of the story is taken to be synonymous with gibberish. The philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin regarded ''Bobok'' as one of the finest works in the literary tradition of Menippean satire, and argues that it encapsulates many of the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Menippean Satire
The genre of Menippean satire is a form of satire, usually in prose, that is characterized by attacking mental attitudes rather than specific individuals or entities. It has been broadly described as a mixture of allegory, picaresque narrative, and satirical commentary.Paul Salzman, ''Narrative Contexts for Bacon's New Atlantis'', p. 39, in Bronwen Price (editor), ''Francis Bacon's New Atlantis'' (2002) Other features found in Menippean satire are different forms of parody and mythological burlesque, a critique of the myths inherited from traditional culture, a rhapsodic nature, a fragmented narrative, the combination of many different targets, and the rapid moving between styles and points of view. The term is used by classical grammarians and by philologists mostly to refer to satires in prose (cf. the verse Satires of Juvenal and his imitators). Social types attacked and ridiculed by Menippean satires include "pedants, bigots, cranks, parvenus, virtuosi, enthusiasts, rapacious ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphony (literature)
In literature, polyphony () is a feature of narrative, which includes a diversity of simultaneous points of view and voices. Caryl Emerson describes it as "a decentered authorial stance that grants validity to all voices". The concept was introduced by Mikhail Bakhtin, using a metaphor based on the musical term polyphony. Bakhtin's primary example of polyphony was Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...'s prose. According to Bakhtin, the chief characteristic of Dostoevsky's novels is "''a plurality of independent and unmerged voices and consciousnesses, a genuine polyphony of fully valid voices''". His major characters are, "''by the very nature of his creative design, not only objects of authorial discourse but also subjects of their own directly signif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the philosophy of language, ethics, and literary theory. His writings, on a variety of subjects, inspired scholars working in a number of different traditions (Marxism, semiotics, structuralism, religious criticism) and in disciplines as diverse as literary criticism, history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology. Although Bakhtin was active in the debates on aesthetics and literature that took place in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, his distinctive position did not become well known until he was rediscovered by Russian scholars in the 1960s. Early life Bakhtin was born in Oryol, Russian Empire, Russia, to an old family of the nobility. His father was the manager of a bank and worked in several cities. For this reason Bakhtin spen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adventure Novel
Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the introduction to the ''Encyclopedia of Adventure Fiction'', Critic Don D'Ammassa defines the genre as follows: D'Ammassa argues that adventure stories make the element of danger the focus; hence he argues that Charles Dickens's novel ''A Tale of Two Cities'' is an adventure novel because the protagonists are in constant danger of being imprisoned or killed, whereas Dickens's '' Great Expectations'' is not because "Pip's encounter with the convict is an adventure, but that scene is only a device to advance the main plot, which is not truly an adventure." Adventure has been a common theme since the earliest days of written fiction. Indeed, the standard plot of Heliodorus, and so durable as to be still alive in Hollywood movies, a hero would undergo a first set of adve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
