Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 1978. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-73).

The thesis systematically explicates Dostoevsky's portrayal of the origin of human evil on earth through the novel The Brothers Karamazov. Drawing from the novel and from Augustine, Pelagius, and Luther, the explication compares and contrasts Dostoevsky's doctrine of original conflict against the three theologians' views of original sin. Following a brief summary of the three earlier theories of original sin, the thesis describes Dostoevsky's peculiar doctrine of Karamazovism and his unique account of how human evil originated. Finally, the thesis shows how suffering, love, and guilt grow out of the original conflict and how the image of Christ serves as an icon of the special kind of social unity projected by Zosima the Elder in The Brothers Karamazov.

Dostoevsky--the master novelist--is a unique product of the Russian tradition . He inherited the values of Orthodoxy, of Slavophilism, of Westernism, of rationalism and of romanticism and in his turn contributed to almost every subsequent manifestation in literature from the enlightened mysticism of Aldous Huxley and the pessimism of Hardy to the despair of modern atheist existentialism and the pessimistic optimism of Berdyaev and Marcel. Dostoevsky's work is the joy of all those who delight in paradoxes--and Berdyaev revels in them . His great novels are at the same time different from and more than they seem . They are symbolical and allegorical on the highest level . At least that is how they affect me and how they seem to affect Berdyaev. I would like at this time to express my deep appreciation to Dr. J. St .Clair Sobell, Head of the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of British Columbia, for his great generosity and encouragement; to Dr. Cyril Bryner for his unflagging assistance, cooperation and understanding; and to Mr. A.W Wainman, who was the first to confront me -with the 'tortured questionings' of Dostoevsky . / Arts, Faculty of / Central Eastern Northern European Studies, Department of / Graduate

In the "metaphysical vacuum" of The Possessed Stepan Trofimovitch Verhovensky is symbolic of a non-productive stewardship--a father who did not father, a teacher who did not teach, and elder who did not will wisdom and tradition to the dependent younger generation. It is puzzling how little critical notice has been taken of Stepan, and it is a lonely position to find in him the key to the teeming, chaotic world of the novel, but this is the thesis which will be pursued.

No description available.

This paper explores the dialectical concept of love in Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov through Katerina and Grushenka, the heroines, and Dmitri Karamazov. Dostoyevsky's dialectic is most accurately described by the terms Eros and Agape, as defined by Denis de Rougemont in Love in the Western World. Chapter One examines the character of Katerina and establishes that although her love is ostensibly Agape, her most frequent expression of love is Eros. Chapter Two establishes that Grushenka's most frequent expression of love is Agape although ostensibly Eros. Chapter Three demonstrates how each woman personifies a pole of Dmitri Karamazov's inner conflict, and then traces his development with regard to his relationship to each woman.

Le roman Les Démons de Fédor Dostoïevski se déploie dans les affres du chaos. Actes terroristes sanglants, questionnements sur Dieu et sur la nation et gestes incongrus posés par des personnages possédés scandent ce roman dense et éclaté. Or, dans tous ces bouleversements, c'est la crainte et l'espoir de l'Apocalypse qui surplombent tout le récit. Comment lire cette accumulation de désordres, tant dans le récit que dans la structure même de l'oeuvre? Comment expliquer une temporalité qui, encore aujourd'hui, est problématique, même pour les lecteurs aguerris de Dostoïevski? C'est par l'entremise de l'imaginaire de la fin que nous essayerons d'apporter certaines réponses à ces questions. Nous tenterons, dans le premier chapitre, de comprendre les divers troubles inhérents au récit dans la logique d'un temps qui menace de se terminer, une Russie sur le point de s'effondrer. Il s'agira d'abord de comprendre les racines de ce temps hors de lui, sans cesse en cavale et toujours insaisissable. Un temps qui happe les protagonistes et, par le fait même, le lecteur. Un temps de la crise dont certains profiteront pour tenter de prendre possession du pouvoir. Tous les signes convergent, dans le roman, vers une fin des temps, une apocalypse programmée. Ce temps qui menace de se finir demande un héros, un homme d'action, un sauveur qui protégera les fidèles de cette fin des temps qui semble imminente. Or, dans le contexte de la Sainte Russie sur le point de s'écrouler, c'est l'idole du nihilisme qui apparaît. L'homme du vide, traquenard insondable, qui ravit l'homme qui le contemple, homme totalement habité par le désir de croire. L'idole, que nous comprendrons, dans le chapitre deux, comme étant une figure, est nimbée d'une aura qui plonge celui qui le regarde dans des actes inexplicables. Toutefois, l'apocalypse programmée n'aura pas lieu. Nous verrons dans le troisième chapitre que ce n'est pas toute l'Humanité qui expire, mais bien l'homme, seule apocalypse possible, aussi injuste soit-elle. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Imaginaire de la fin, Dostoïevski, Figure, Mort, Temps, Les Démons, Littérature russe.

This study is an examination of the rhetorical concept of the dialectic as it is realized in selected works of North American dystopian literature. The dialectic is one of the main factors in curtailing enlightenment rationalism which, taken to an extreme, would deny man freedom while claiming to bestow freedom upon him. The focus of this dissertation is on an analysis of twentieth-century dystopias and the dialectic of Fyodor Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor parable which is a precursor to dystopian literature. The Grand Inquisitor parable of The Brothers Karamazov is a blueprint for dystopian states delineated in anti-utopian fiction. Also, Dostoevsky's parable constitutes a powerful dialectical struggle between polar opposites which are presented in the following twentieth-century dystopias: Zamiatin's Me, Bradbury's Farenheit 451, Vonnegut's Player Piano, and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. The dialectic in the dystopian genre presents a give and take between the opposites of faith and doubt, liberty and slavery, and it often presents the individual of the anti-utopian state with a choice. When presented with the dialectic, then, the individual is presented with the capacity to make a real choice; therefore, he is presented with a hope for salvation in the totalitarian dystopias of modern twentieth-century literature.

Este trabalho é composto pela tradução anotada do texto original em inglês Fyodor Dostoevski (1821 1881), que faz parte das aulas de literatura russa que o autor russo Vladímir Nabókov ministrou em universidades americanas de 1941 a 1959, bem como por uma introdução biobibliográfica e crítica sobre o autor, de um modo geral, e de um ensaio crítico sobre suas opiniões a respeito das principais obras de Fiódor Dostoiévski, em particular. Para tanto, serão comentadas as principais opiniões críticas de Nabókov sobre os romances Crime e Castigo, Memórias do Subsolo, O Idiota, Os Demônios e os Irmãos Karámazov de Dostoiévski à luz das concepções de Mikhail Bakhtin, Leonid Grossman, Joseph Frank, entre outros. / This research is composed of the annotated translation of the original text in English Fyodor Dostoevski (1821 - 1881), which is part of the lectures on Russian literature that the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov gave in American universities from 1941 to 1959, as well as by a biobibliographical and critical introduction about the author, in a general way, and a critical essay about his opinions concerning the major works of Fyodor Dostoevski, in particular. To accomplish this task, Nabokovs opinions about the novels Crime and Punishment, Memories from the Underground, The Possessed, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov have been studied in the light of Mikhail Bakhtin, Leonid Grossman, Joseph Frank, among others.

Este trabalho é composto pela tradução anotada do texto original em inglês Fyodor Dostoevski (1821 1881), que faz parte das aulas de literatura russa que o autor russo Vladímir Nabókov ministrou em universidades americanas de 1941 a 1959, bem como por uma introdução biobibliográfica e crítica sobre o autor, de um modo geral, e de um ensaio crítico sobre suas opiniões a respeito das principais obras de Fiódor Dostoiévski, em particular. Para tanto, serão comentadas as principais opiniões críticas de Nabókov sobre os romances Crime e Castigo, Memórias do Subsolo, O Idiota, Os Demônios e os Irmãos Karámazov de Dostoiévski à luz das concepções de Mikhail Bakhtin, Leonid Grossman, Joseph Frank, entre outros. / This research is composed of the annotated translation of the original text in English Fyodor Dostoevski (1821 - 1881), which is part of the lectures on Russian literature that the Russian author Vladimir Nabokov gave in American universities from 1941 to 1959, as well as by a biobibliographical and critical introduction about the author, in a general way, and a critical essay about his opinions concerning the major works of Fyodor Dostoevski, in particular. To accomplish this task, Nabokovs opinions about the novels Crime and Punishment, Memories from the Underground, The Possessed, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov have been studied in the light of Mikhail Bakhtin, Leonid Grossman, Joseph Frank, among others.