The calendar | Dostoevsky

November 11, 2021

200 years after Dostoevsky's birth

Can you name which of his novels the following fragments come from?

At the end of the article, look at the answer ~

1

"Can you do a million good deeds to atone for a trivial sin and make it pardonable, do you think?" By sacrificing one's life, thousands of people can be saved, not suffering, not separating their wives. The death of one person is exchanged for the life of a hundred people - isn't this mathematics! Besides, in terms of the public interest, what is the meaning of the life of this lung-sick, stupid and vicious old woman? ”

2

"It is better to be unhappy but to understand in your heart than to be happy but blinded by ... Good in the drum. ”

3

"It should be especially remembered that you can't be anyone's magistrate. For no one can judge sinners on earth unless he himself realizes that he is as guilty as the one who stands before him, and that he is perhaps more responsible than anyone else for the sins committed by those who stand before him. Only when a person has attained this level can he become a magistrate. ”

4

"I'm a sick person."

5

"A humane attitude can restore a person to his true nature, even if the image of God has long since faded in him. Such 'unfortunate people' are to be treated as human beings the most. It was their comfort and joy. ”

1821.11.11 — 1881.2.9

Hair is picked up here

Corresponding Academician of the St. Petersburg Branch of the Russian Academy of Social Sciences, Vishevolod Bagno/ Wen, Ji Xinyan/ Translation

Russian Literature and the Construction of the Russian Image

In memory of this great and painful writer

The original issue of "Wenhui Scholar" 2017.10.13

The first great shift in the perception of Russia in the West came during Russia's "peaceful" conquest of the West. Dostoevsky's prediction that Russian novels would appeal to Europe is proof of this. He claimed that Tolstoy's Anna Karenina surpassed all modern European literature:

Of course, some people will laugh at it and say that this is just a literary work, a long novel, and it is ridiculous to evaluate it so exaggeratedly, does a novel want to go into Europe? I know there will be loud ridicule, but don't worry, I'm not exaggerating at all, and I'm very sober: I know myself that this is just a novel for the time being, and so far this is only the first step in what we need to do, but the most important thing for me is that we have taken this step.

...... There are some things that make up "our identity":

Some of these expressions were unheard of in Europe, but they were so necessary, even though Europe at the time was proud of everything it had.

The key role of the Russian novel is to re-examine the social views of Western Europe, to correct assessments and perceptions that do not clarify the causes of the political and economic situation; to adjust their skeptical, condemnatory, and critical attitudes into curiosity, sympathy, and praise.

The incorporation of Russian literature into the general spiritual movement of the West undoubtedly influenced Russia's international standing, fundamentally changing its overall reputation in the cultural world.

In the Western European view of Russia, literature and the peoples that produced it are often closely linked. The great destiny of the nation can be "read" in the excellent works of its novelists, and vice versa, and those who have a global perspective believe that great peoples produce great literature.

Whether or not the reader is aware of the distance between reality and artistic reality, he should follow Stephen Zweig on the most essential question of human existence contained in Russian novels:

Open any of the fifty thousand books, which are European works every year, what do they say? Say about happiness. A woman wants a husband, or someone wants to be rich, powerful, and respected.

To have a beautiful cottage in the bosom of nature and a group of happy children was what Dickens had always pursued; balzac was after a castle, a title of nobility, and a millionaires. And, if we look around, what do the people on the street, the people in the shops, the people in the low rooms, and the people in the bright halls really want? Is it happiness, contentment, wealth, or strength?

Who in Dostoevsky's protagonists would pursue this? No one pursues these, not one. They don't want to stay anywhere, and even happiness won't stop them.

Today, when we ask foreign researchers of Russian literature: "Why did Raskolnikov kill the old woman who lent money at usury?" Unfortunately, the answer is likely to be: "Because he's Russian." ”

Undoubtedly, second only to the mass media, Russian classic literature is currently the main source of impressions of Russia for millions of people who have not been to Russia. The novel, as a second reality, functions in the absence of a first reality. Thus, for a long time, the vast majority of Russians have had to be tested by the colored glasses of foreign readers – whether we match the characters in Russian novels or have the "infamous" mysterious Russian mind.

From the 1920s onwards, the ideological aesthetic explorations and preferences of the entire world can be attributed to the transition from Tolstoy to Dostoevsky. Obviously, the philosophical and aesthetic search for meaning between the East and the West will eventually clarify the eternal creativity of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and be equally integrated into the spiritual experience of the 20th century, but this moment has not yet come.

answer

1 Crime and Punishment

2 "The Idiot"

3 "The Brothers Karamazov"

4 "Basement Notes"

5 Dead House Notes

Author: Fushevolod Bagno/Wen Ji Xinyan/Translation

Editor-in-Charge: Junyi Li