The thesis analyzes Fedor Dostoevskii's novella Vechnyi muzh from the perspective of impeded discourse between the reader and the narrative text. It argues that impediment intrinsic to the narrative text affects the enunciative process of the work on various levels. The workings of impediment in Vechnyi muzh are examined on the levels of theme, genre---both in universal and historical terms---and narration. Frustrated reader expectation, uncertainty, and disorientation are shown to be symptomatic of impediment due to three factors: (1) thematic ambiguity on the basis of Dostoevskii's subversion in Vechnyi muzh of the theme of adultery, and of the cuckold motif; (2) genre ambivalence arising from mixed genre signals embedded in the text; (3) inhibited narrative assessment due to restrained narrative technique, and limited narrative perspective.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.20476 |
| Date | January 1997 |
| Creators | Steiger, Krystyna. |
| Contributors | Bevaha, Laura (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Russian and Slavic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001609509, proquestno: MQ43956, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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