|
|
|
|
|
RUSS352/HUMA381 (Dostoevsky)
offers an analysis and multiple interpretations of the novels of Dostoevsky
and of the Russian cultural scene while drawing on a broad range of
philosophical, literary and historical sources. The syllabus lists, as
recommended reading, Alasdair MacIntyre’s Three Rival Versions of Modern
Enquiry: Encyclopedia, Genealogy, Tradition, as well as excerpts from
Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morals. The goal of these inclusions is to
stimulate students to interpret literary works in the light of three
different foundational approaches: the first is based on the Enlightenment,
the second was pioneered by Friedrich Nietzsche (all the way to Foucault and
Derrida), and the third originated in the school of interpretation that goes
back to medieval ‘realism’ (as opposed to nominalism). Nietzsche’s method of
teasing out of texts their hidden inconsistencies and prejudices, his efforts
to demask and demystify the pious platitudes of established culture, have of
course played a central role in the interpretations of Dostoevsky in the
western world. While ‘Enlightenment’
hermeneutics alienated Dostoevsky from the English reader (Frank Swinnerton’s
famous description of Dostoevsky’s characters as ‘the nightmares of an
epileptic’), they do afford an opportunity to ponder the reasons for the
rejection of the Enlightenment in twentieth-century European philosophy. The
‘realistic,’ or ‘Thomistic,’ readings of Dostoevsky afford an opportunity to
reflect on the problem of inseparability of moral and intellectual life as
outlined in Plato’s Gorgias (cf. Socrates’ answer to Callicles about
superior men and their share of power in the republic). In this course, students will
be asked to interpret Dostoevsky’s works in the light of these three
contradictory interpretive orientations. They will be asked to reflect on
their own affinities with one or more of these orientations. Another component of the
course will be the placing of Dostoevsky within the context of Russian
culture. In Russia, literature has customarily served as a vehicle for
philosophical and political argument. While discussing Dostoevsky’s ‘holy
fools,’ the instructor will draw on her own book on the subject. The hidden
presence of the military in Dostoevsky’s novels, Dostoevsky’s ethnic
prejudices, and Dostoevsky's colonialist mentality will also be discussed. See you in class!
|
|
Copyright
by Ewa Thompson, 2006.
Back to Russ352 Homepage |