Themes in Fyodor Dostoevsky's writings

Though sometimes described as a [[Literary realism|literary realist]], a genre characterized by its depiction of contemporary life in its everyday reality, Dostoevsky saw himself as a "fantastic realist".{{sfn|Terras|1998|p=preface}} According to Leonid Grossman, Dostoevsky wanted "to introduce the extraordinary into the very thick of the commonplace, to fuse... the sublime with the grotesque, and push images and phenomena of everyday reality to the limits of the fantastic."<ref>{{cite book |last=Grossman |first=Leonid |date=1925 |title=The Poetics of Dostoevsky |pages=61–2 }}</ref> Grossman saw Dostoevsky as the inventor of an entirely new novelistic form, in which an artistic whole is created out of profoundly disparate genres—the religious text, the philosophical treatise, the newspaper, the anecdote, the parody, the street scene, the grotesque, the pamphlet—combined within the narrative structure of an [[adventure novel]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grossman|first1=Leonid|title=The Poetics of Dostoevsky|date=1925|pages=174–75}}</ref> Dostoevsky engages with profound philosophical and social problems by using the techniques of the adventure novel as a means of "''testing'' the idea and the man of the idea".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bakhtin|first1=Mikhail|title=Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics|url=https://archive.org/details/problemsofdostoe00bakh|url-access=registration|date=1984|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-1227-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/problemsofdostoe00bakh/page/105 105]}}</ref> Characters are brought together in extraordinary situations for the provoking and testing of the philosophical ideas by which they are dominated.<ref>Bakhtin, Mikhail (1984). p. 114</ref> For [[Mikhail Bakhtin]], 'the idea' is central to Dostoevsky's poetics, and he called him the inventor of the [[Polyphony (literature)|polyphonic]] novel, in which multiple "idea-voices" co-exist and compete with each other on their own terms, without the mediation of a 'monologising' authorial voice. It is this innovation, according to Bakhtin, that made the co-existence of disparate genres within an integrated whole artistically successful in Dostoevsky's case.<ref>Bakhtin, Mikhail (1984). p. 105</ref>

Though sometimes described as a [[Literary realism|literary realist]], a genre characterized by its depiction of contemporary life in its everyday reality, Dostoevsky saw himself as a "fantastic realist".{{sfn|Terras|1998|p=preface}} According to Leonid Grossman, Dostoevsky wanted "to introduce the extraordinary into the very thick of the commonplace, to fuse... the sublime with the grotesque, and push images and phenomena of everyday reality to the limits of the fantastic."<ref>{{cite book |last=Grossman |first=Leonid |date=1925 |title=The Poetics of Dostoevsky |pages=61–2 }}</ref> Grossman saw Dostoevsky as the inventor of an entirely new novelistic form, in which an artistic whole is created out of profoundly disparate genres—the religious text, the philosophical treatise, the newspaper, the anecdote, the parody, the street scene, the grotesque, the pamphlet—combined within the narrative structure of an [[adventure novel]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Grossman|first1=Leonid|title=The Poetics of Dostoevsky|date=1925|pages=174–75}}</ref> Dostoevsky engages with profound philosophical and social problems by using the techniques of the adventure novel as a means of "''testing'' the idea and the man of the idea".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Bakhtin|first1=Mikhail|title=Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics|url=https://archive.org/details/problemsofdostoe00bakh|url-access=registration|date=1984|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=978-0-8166-1227-7|page=[https://archive.org/details/problemsofdostoe00bakh/page/105 105]}}</ref> Characters are brought together in extraordinary situations for the provoking and testing of the philosophical ideas by which they are dominated.<ref>Bakhtin, Mikhail (1984). p. 114</ref> For [[Mikhail Bakhtin]], 'the idea' is central to Dostoevsky's poetics, and he called him the inventor of the [[Polyphony (literature)|polyphonic]] novel, in which multiple "idea-voices" co-exist and compete with each other on their own terms, without the mediation of a 'monologising' authorial voice. It is this innovation, according to Bakhtin, that made the co-existence of disparate genres within an integrated whole artistically successful in Dostoevsky's case.<ref>Bakhtin, Mikhail (1984). p. 105</ref>

Bakhtin argues that Dostoyevsky's works can be placed in the tradition of [[menippean satire]]. According to Bakhtin, Dostoyevsky revived satire as a genre combining comedy, fantasy, symbolism, adventure, and drama in which mental attitudes are personified. The short story ''[[Bobok]]'', found in ''[[A Writer's Diary]]'', is "one of the greatest menippeas in all world literature", but examples can also be found in "[[The Dream of a Ridiculous Man]]", the first encounter between Raskolnikov and Sonja in ''Crime and Punishment'', which is "an almost perfect Christianised menippea", and in "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor".<ref name="Bakthin">{{cite web|url=https://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/01/031.shtml|title=Bakhtin's View of Dostoevsky: "Polyphony" and "Carnivalesque"|publisher=University of Toronto|author=René Wellek|access-date=3 June 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002013645/http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/01/031.shtml|archive-date=2 October 2013}}</ref> Critic Harold Bloom stated that "satiric parody is the center of Dostoyevsky's art."{{sfn|Bloom|2004|p=10}}

Bakhtin argues that Dostoyevsky's works can be placed in the tradition of [[menippean satire]]. According to Bakhtin, Dostoyevsky revived satire as a genre combining comedy, fantasy, symbolism, adventure, and drama in which mental attitudes are personified. The short story ''[[Bobok]]'', found in ''[[A Writer's Diary]]'', is "one of the greatest menippeas in all world literature", but examples can also be found in "[[The Dream of a Ridiculous Man]]", the first encounter between Raskolnikov and Sonja in ''Crime and Punishment'', which is "an almost perfect Christianised menippea", and in "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor".<ref name="Bakthin">{{cite web|url=https://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/01/031.shtml|title=Bakhtin's View of Dostoevsky: "Polyphony" and "Carnivalesque"|publisher=University of Toronto|author=René Wellek|access-date=3 June 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002013645/http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/DS/01/031.shtml|archive-date=2 October 2013}}</ref> Critic [[Harold Bloom]] stated that "satiric parody is the center of Dostoyevsky's art."{{sfn|Bloom|2004|p=10}}

Dostoyevsky investigated human nature. According to his friend, the critic [[Nikolay Strakhov]], "All his attention was directed upon people, and he grasped at only their nature and character", and was "interested by people, people exclusively, with their state of soul, with the manner of their lives, their feelings and thoughts". Philosopher [[Nikolai Berdyaev]] stated that he "is not a realist as an artist, he is an experimenter, a creator of an experimental metaphysics of human nature". His characters live in an unlimited, irrealistic world, beyond borders and limits. Berdyaev remarks that "Dostoevsky reveals a new mystical science of man", limited to people "who have been drawn into the whirlwind".<ref name="berdyaev">{{cite web|url=http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1918_294.html|title=The Revelation About Man in the Creativity of Dostoevsky|author=Nikolay Berdyaev|date=1918|access-date=18 August 2012}}</ref>

Dostoyevsky investigated human nature. According to his friend, the critic [[Nikolay Strakhov]], "All his attention was directed upon people, and he grasped at only their nature and character", and was "interested by people, people exclusively, with their state of soul, with the manner of their lives, their feelings and thoughts". Philosopher [[Nikolai Berdyaev]] stated that he "is not a realist as an artist, he is an experimenter, a creator of an experimental metaphysics of human nature". His characters live in an unlimited, irrealistic world, beyond borders and limits. Berdyaev remarks that "Dostoevsky reveals a new mystical science of man", limited to people "who have been drawn into the whirlwind".<ref name="berdyaev">{{cite web|url=http://www.berdyaev.com/berdiaev/berd_lib/1918_294.html|title=The Revelation About Man in the Creativity of Dostoevsky|author=Nikolay Berdyaev|date=1918|access-date=18 August 2012}}</ref>

Dostoyevsky's translations of Balzac's ''[[Eugénie Grandet]]'' and Sand's ''La dernière Aldini'' differ from standard translations. In his translation of ''Eugénie Grandet'', he often omitted whole passages or paraphrased significantly, perhaps because of his rudimentary knowledge of French or his haste.{{sfn|Lantz|2004|p=29}} He also used darker words, such as "gloomy" instead of "pale" and "cold", and sensational adjectives, such as "horrible" and "mysterious". The translation of ''La desnière Aldini'' was never completed because someone already published one in 1837.{{sfn|Catteau|1989|pp=12–13}} He also abandoned working on ''Mathilde'' by Sue due to lack of funds.{{sfn|Lantz|2004|p=419}} Influenced by the plays he watched during this time, he wrote [[verse drama]]s for two plays, ''[[Mary Stuart (Schiller play)|Mary Stuart]]'' by [[Schiller]] and ''[[Boris Godunov (play)|Boris Godunov]]'' by Pushkin, which have been lost.{{sfn|Sekirin|1997|p=51}}{{sfn|Carr|1962|p=20}}

Dostoyevsky's translations of Balzac's ''[[Eugénie Grandet]]'' and Sand's ''La dernière Aldini'' differ from standard translations. In his translation of ''Eugénie Grandet'', he often omitted whole passages or paraphrased significantly, perhaps because of his rudimentary knowledge of French or his haste.{{sfn|Lantz|2004|p=29}} He also used darker words, such as "gloomy" instead of "pale" and "cold", and sensational adjectives, such as "horrible" and "mysterious". The translation of ''La desnière Aldini'' was never completed because someone already published one in 1837.{{sfn|Catteau|1989|pp=12–13}} He also abandoned working on ''Mathilde'' by Sue due to lack of funds.{{sfn|Lantz|2004|p=419}} Influenced by the plays he watched during this time, he wrote [[verse drama]]s for two plays, ''[[Mary Stuart (Schiller play)|Mary Stuart]]'' by [[Schiller]] and ''[[Boris Godunov (play)|Boris Godunov]]'' by Pushkin, which have been lost.{{sfn|Sekirin|1997|p=51}}{{sfn|Carr|1962|p=20}}

Dostoyevsky's first novel, ''[[Poor Folk]]'', an [[epistolary novel]], depicts the relationship between the elderly official Makar Devushkin and the young seamstress Varvara Dobroselova, a remote relative. The correspondence between them reveals Devushkin's tender, sentimental adoration for his relative and her confident, warm regard for him as they grapple with the bewildering and sometimes heartbreaking problems forced upon them by their lowly social positions. The novel was a success, with the influential critic Vissarion Belinsky calling it "Russia's first [[social novel]]",{{sfn|Bloom|2004|p=12}} for its sympathetic depiction of poor and downtrodden people.{{sfn|Lantz|2004|p=334-35}} Dostoyevsky's next work, ''[[The Double (Dostoyevsky novel)|The Double]]'', was a radical departure from the form and style of ''Poor Folk''. It centres on the disintegrating inner and outer world of its shy and 'honourable' protagonist, Yakov Golyadkin, as he slowly discovers that his treacherous [[doppelgänger]] has achieved the social respect and success denied to him. Unlike the first novel, ''The Double'' was not well received by critics. Belinsky commented that the work had "no sense, no content and no thoughts", and that the novel was boring due to the protagonist's garrulity, or tendency towards verbal diarrhoea.{{sfn|Belinsky|1847|p=96}} He and other critics stated that the idea for ''The Double'' was brilliant, but that its external form was misconceived and full of multi-clause sentences.{{sfn|Reber|1964|p=22}}{{sfn|Terras|1969|p=224}}

Dostoyevsky's first novel, ''[[Poor Folk]]'', an [[epistolary novel]], depicts the relationship between the elderly official Makar Devushkin and the young seamstress Varvara Dobroselova, a remote relative. The correspondence between them reveals Devushkin's tender, sentimental adoration for his relative and her confident, warm regard for him as they grapple with the bewildering and sometimes heartbreaking problems forced upon them by their lowly social positions. The novel was a success, with the influential critic [[Vissarion Belinsky]] calling it "Russia's first [[social novel]]",{{sfn|Bloom|2004|p=12}} for its sympathetic depiction of poor and downtrodden people.{{sfn|Lantz|2004|p=334-35}} Dostoyevsky's next work, ''[[The Double (Dostoyevsky novel)|The Double]]'', was a radical departure from the form and style of ''Poor Folk''. It centres on the disintegrating inner and outer world of its shy and 'honourable' protagonist, Yakov Golyadkin, as he slowly discovers that his treacherous [[doppelgänger]] has achieved the social respect and success denied to him. Unlike the first novel, ''The Double'' was not well received by critics. Belinsky commented that the work had "no sense, no content and no thoughts", and that the novel was boring due to the protagonist's garrulity, or tendency towards verbal diarrhoea.{{sfn|Belinsky|1847|p=96}} He and other critics stated that the idea for ''The Double'' was brilliant, but that its external form was misconceived and full of multi-clause sentences.{{sfn|Reber|1964|p=22}}{{sfn|Terras|1969|p=224}}

The short stories Dostoyevsky wrote during the period before his imprisonment explore similar themes to ''Poor Folk'' and ''The Double''.{{sfn|Frank|2009|p=103}} "[[White Nights (short story)|White Nights]]" "features rich nature and music imagery, gentle irony, usually directed at the first-person narrator himself, and a warm pathos that is always ready to turn into self-parody". The first three parts of his unfinished novel ''Netochka Nezvanova'' chronicle the trials and tribulations of Netochka, stepdaughter of a second-class fiddler, while in "[[A Christmas Tree and a Wedding]]", Dostoyevsky switches to social satire.{{sfn|Terras|1998|pp=14–30}}

The short stories Dostoyevsky wrote during the period before his imprisonment explore similar themes to ''Poor Folk'' and ''The Double''.{{sfn|Frank|2009|p=103}} "[[White Nights (short story)|White Nights]]" "features rich nature and music imagery, gentle irony, usually directed at the first-person narrator himself, and a warm pathos that is always ready to turn into self-parody". The first three parts of his unfinished novel ''Netochka Nezvanova'' chronicle the trials and tribulations of Netochka, stepdaughter of a second-class fiddler, while in "[[A Christmas Tree and a Wedding]]", Dostoyevsky switches to social satire.{{sfn|Terras|1998|pp=14–30}}

Dostoyevsky's early works were influenced by contemporary writers, including [[Pushkin]], [[Gogol]] and [[E.T.A. Hoffmann|Hoffmann]], which led to accusations of plagiarism. Several critics pointed out similarities in ''The Double'' to Gogol's works ''[[The Overcoat]]'' and ''[[The Nose (Gogol)|The Nose]]''. Parallels have been made between his short story "An Honest Thief" and George Sand's ''François le champi'' and Eugène Sue's ''Mathilde ou Confessions d'une jeune fille'', and between Dostoyevsky's ''Netochka Nezvanova'' and [[Charles Dickens|Charles Dickens']] ''[[Dombey and Son]]''. Like many young writers, he was "not fully convinced of his own creative faculty, yet firmly believed in the correctness of his critical judgement."{{sfn|Terras|1998|pp=14–30}}

Dostoyevsky's early works were influenced by contemporary writers, including [[Pushkin]], [[Gogol]] and [[E.T.A. Hoffmann|Hoffmann]], which led to accusations of plagiarism. Several critics pointed out similarities in ''The Double'' to Gogol's works ''[[The Overcoat]]'' and ''[[The Nose (Gogol)|The Nose]]''. Parallels have been made between his short story "An Honest Thief" and [[George Sand]]'s ''François le champi'' and Eugène Sue's ''Mathilde ou Confessions d'une jeune fille'', and between Dostoyevsky's ''Netochka Nezvanova'' and [[Charles Dickens|Charles Dickens']] ''[[Dombey and Son]]''. Like many young writers, he was "not fully convinced of his own creative faculty, yet firmly believed in the correctness of his critical judgement."{{sfn|Terras|1998|pp=14–30}}

=== Later years ===

=== Later years ===