“Well, go, love Ivan!”: Ivan Karamazov unveiled and the “Pro and Contra” debate revisited

In his direct comments on The Brothers Karamazov , Fyodor Dostoevsky only refers to Book V (“Pro and Contra”) and VI (“The Russian Monk”) as the novel’s culminating points. These two Books, notoriously polemical, constitute a debate provoked by the representative of Contra values, Ivan Karamazov, wh...

Celý popis

Uložené v:
Podrobná bibliografia
Vydané v:Studies in East European thought Ročník 77; číslo 5; s. 1021 - 1035
Hlavný autor: Yang, Shudi
Médium: Journal Article
Jazyk:English
Vydavateľské údaje: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.10.2025
Springer Nature B.V
Predmet:
ISSN:0925-9392, 1573-0948
On-line prístup:Získať plný text
Tagy: Pridať tag
Žiadne tagy, Buďte prvý, kto otaguje tento záznam!
Popis
Shrnutí:In his direct comments on The Brothers Karamazov , Fyodor Dostoevsky only refers to Book V (“Pro and Contra”) and VI (“The Russian Monk”) as the novel’s culminating points. These two Books, notoriously polemical, constitute a debate provoked by the representative of Contra values, Ivan Karamazov, who seeks responses from the “Pros.” This paper comes to support a more sophisticated reading of the Pros’ arguments, and argues that they do win the debate, since Ivan never intends to convince his counterparts, but on the contrary, wishes to be convinced of Zosima’s doctrines as the solution to his personal existential crisis. In this respect, Ivan, or more precisely his upbringing and early experiences that have been relatively neglected in Dostoevsky scholarship, becomes the key to our understanding of the novel’s ideological core. Such a viewpoint, it will be argued, fits perfectly with the theme of The Brothers Karamazov , namely “the young generation” and “contemporary Russian families,” according to the writer’s own testimony.
Bibliografia:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0925-9392
1573-0948
DOI:10.1007/s11212-024-09649-y