- Ф.М. Достоевский: Юмор, парадоксальность, демонтаж
- Edited by Dar'ja Farafonova, Laura Salmon, Stefano Aloe
Ascetism and Incontinence and Dostoevsky’s Gift of Tears
- Carol Apollonio
- © 2023 Author(s) |
- CC BY 4.0
- DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0122-3.08
In Dostoevsky’s binary poetics, an opposition can be drawn between two fundamental stances – asceticism and incontinence. Ascetics adhere to an ethos of self-restraint in response to the desires of the flesh. Incontinents act spontaneously to gratify their desires. The current study draws an analogy between the behavior pattern of Dostoevsky’s self-denying intellectual heroes and that of exiled castrate (skoptsy) communities. Dostoevsky’s ascetics represent a cerebral mindset attracted to visions of social utopia; their intellectualizing detaches them from the life of the body and thus weirdly parallels the strictures of the skoptsy. An encounter between an ascetic and a prostitute serves as a central plot moment in works such as Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground.
- Keywords:
- Dostoevsky,
- ascetism,
- sectarianism,
- castrates,
- drunkenness,
Duke University, United States
- Apollonio, Carol. 2009. Dostoevsky’s Secrets: Reading Against the Grain. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
- Aristotle. 1998 (1911). Nicomachean Ethics, tr. from Greek by Drummond Percy Chase. New York: Dover [reprint of London: J.M. Dent & Sons].
- Bible, King James Version, https://biblehub.com/kjv/john/12-24.htm (03.03.2023).
- Dante [Alighieri]. 1994. The Inferno, tr. from Italian by Robert Pinsky, with notes by Nicole Pinsky. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
- Engelstein, Laura. 1999. Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale. Ithaca-London: Cornell University Press.
- Matthiewson Jr., Rufus W. 2000. The Positive Hero in Russian Literature. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
- Morris, Marcia A. 1993. Saints and Revolutionaries: The Ascetic Hero in Russian Literature. Albany: State University of New York Press.
- Murav, Harriet. 1992. Holy Foolishness: Dostoevsky’s Novels and the Poetics of Cultural Critique. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
- Nietzsche, Friedrich. (1887) 1989. On the Genealogy of Morals, and Ecce Homo, tr. from German by Walter Kaufmann and Reginal J. Hollingdale, ed. by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage.
- Plato 1992. Republic, tr. fron Greek by Georges M.A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett.
- Singleton, Charles S. 1977. Commentary [Vol. 2 of Dante Alighieri. The Inferno, tr. from Italian, with a commentary, by Charles S. Singleton, (2nd printing, with corrections)]. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Бычков, Александр. 1902. Очерки якутской области, т. 2: Скопцы в ссылке. Иркутск: Макушин.
- Меньшенин, Гавриил П. 1900. “Ссыльные скопцы в Якутской области.” Гос. музей истории религии, ф. 2, оп. 5, д. 273, лл. 1-11 об (cited in Engelstein, Laura. 1999. Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale, note 107, p. 260; notes 138-9, p. 262. Ithaca-London: Cornell University Press).
- Повесть о бражнике. 1969. В кн. Изборник (Сборник произведений литературы древней Руси), под ред. Александра М. Панченко, 594-96, 779-80. Москва: Художественная литература, https://www.gumer.info/bibliotek_Buks/Fiction/drevneruss/brajn.php (03.03.2023).
Chapter Information
Chapter Title
Ascetism and Incontinence and Dostoevsky’s Gift of Tears
Authors
Carol Apollonio
Language
Russian
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0122-3.08
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2023
Copyright Information
© 2023 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Bibliographic Information
Book Title
Ф.М. Достоевский: Юмор, парадоксальность, демонтаж
Editors
Dar'ja Farafonova, Laura Salmon, Stefano Aloe
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
222
Publication Year
2023
Copyright Information
© 2023 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0122-3
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0121-6
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0122-3
eISBN (epub)
979-12-215-0123-0
Series Title
Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici
Series ISSN
2612-7687
Series E-ISSN
2612-7679