The Novel in the Age of Disintegration Dostoevsky and the Problem of Genre in the 1870s

Scholars have long been fascinated by the creative struggles with genre manifested throughout Dostoevsky's career. InThe Novel in the Age of Disintegration,Kate Holland brings historical context to bear, showing that Dostoevsky wanted to use the form of the novel as a means of depicting disinte...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author Holland, Kate
Format eBook
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago Northwestern University Press 2013
Edition1
SeriesStudies in Russian Literature and Theory
Subjects
1801-1917
1821-1881
Criticism and interpretation
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821–1881
Language & Literature
LITERARY CRITICISM
Russia
Russian & Former Soviet Union
Social change in literature
Social conditions
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ISBN0810129264
9780810129269

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Summary:Scholars have long been fascinated by the creative struggles with genre manifested throughout Dostoevsky's career. InThe Novel in the Age of Disintegration,Kate Holland brings historical context to bear, showing that Dostoevsky wanted to use the form of the novel as a means of depicting disintegration brought on by various crises in Russian society in the 1860s. This required him to reinvent the genre. At the same time he sought to infuse his novels with the capacity to inspire belief in social and spiritual reintegration, so he returned to some older conventions of a society that was already becoming outmoded. In thoughtful readings ofDemons, The Adolescent, A Writer's Diary,andThe Brothers Karamazov,Holland delineates Dostoevsky's struggle to adapt a genre to the reality of the present, with all its upheavals, while maintaining a utopian vision of Russia's future mission.
ISBN:0810129264
9780810129269