Diane Oenning Thompson - Böcker

Dostoevsky is one of Russia's greatest novelists and a major influence in modern debates about religion, both in Russia and the West. This collection brings together Western and Russian perspectives on the issues raised by the religious element in his work. The aim of this collection is not to abstract Dostoevsky's religious 'teaching' from his literary works, but to explore the interaction between his Christian faith and his writing. The essays cover such topics as temptation, grace and law, Dostoevsky's use of the gospels and hagiography, Trinitarianism, and the Russian tradition of the veneration of icons, as well as reading aloud, and dialogism. In addition to an exploration of the impact of the Christian tradition on Dostoevsky's major novels, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov, there are also discussions of lesser-known works such as The Landlady and A Little Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree.

The Brothers Karamazov is Dostoevsky's last and most complex novel. It represents the fullest expression of his quest to achieve a literary work which would express the dilemmas and aspirations of his time and also represent the eternal, absolute values he perceived in the Christian tradition. Diane Thompson's study focuses on the meaning and poetic function of memory in the novel, and seeks to show how Dostoevsky used cultural memory to create a synthesis between his Christian ideal and art. Memory is considered not only as a theme or subject, but also as a principle of artistic composition. This interpretation identifies those aspects of cultural memory Dostoevsky incorporated into his novel, and analyses how he used them as significant components of his characters' memories. This challenging study sets Dostoevsky's work in a new perspective. It will appeal to scholars of Russian and comparative literature.