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Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky. Background. Dostoevsky born in hospital for the poor in Moscow on October 30, 1821 2 nd of 7 children Father, despotic and hot-tempered, murdered by his own serfs Mother, tender and sensitive, died when Fyodor was only 15

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Fyodor Dostoevsky

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  1. Fyodor Dostoevsky

  2. Background • Dostoevsky born in hospital for the poor in Moscow on October 30, 1821 • 2nd of 7 children • Father, despotic and hot-tempered, murdered by his own serfs • Mother, tender and sensitive, died when Fyodor was only 15 • Graduated 1843 from St. Petersburg’s Academy of Military Engineers

  3. Crime and Punishment • Decided to become a writer rather than follow military career • Reign of Tsar Nikolay I very despotic • Caused reactionary force to arise within people • Dostoevsky opposed to censorship and serfhood • Belonged to group of Utopian Socialists headed by M.V. Petrashevsky • Under repressive rule of Tsar, young men in Petrashevsky group were arrested and sentenced to death • Sentence commuted only after mock reenactment of execution • Dostoevsky spent 4 years in Omsk penal settlement and 5 years as a private in Siberian Army in Semipalatinsk

  4. The Criminal Mind • Dostoevsky experienced firsthand the irrationality and evil of the criminal mind • Ceased to believe that criminal solutions could redeem a corrupt soul • From New Testament, found that salvation comes not from political or institutional change but from internal religious transformation

  5. Return from Siberia • Dostoevsky returned in December of 1859 with religious mission • Believed strongly in profound spiritual resources of ordinary people • Also believed in superiority of Russian cultural and moral values

  6. Crime and Punishment II

  7. Themes • After death of Tsar Nikolay I, Aleaxander II’s reign was more liberal • C&P published during flowering of intellectual and philosophical pursuit • Focus is on psychological landscape of hero’s mind • Insists on spiritual side to man, refutes enlightenment notion of complete rationality • St. Petersburg a metaphor for hero’s mind • Narrative structure experimented with fluid structure of subjective experience • Tension between social and private selves

  8. Diary of a Writer • Founded two journals, Time and Epoch • Struggled with constant debt and epilepsy • Married twice, faced death of his beloved brother, 1st wife, and two children • Gambled constantly and was forced to pawn belongings • Died January 28, 1881. 50,000 people attended his funeral where he was hailed as the “prophet of Russia.”

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