Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev as a Historical Phenomenon

Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev as a Historical Phenomenon GEORGE G. WEICKHARDT (San Francisco, USA) TOLSTOI, DOSTOEVSKII AND TURGENEV AS A HISTORICAL PHENOMENON* The novels of Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev possess a universality of appeal and significance. These novels confront fundamental moral, philosoph- ical and religious issues with directness and power. Such themes as crises of faith and denial, the search by the individual for a role in history, the quest by the individual for oneness with all mankind, the psychological forces which can drive a person to hideous crimes, the problem of explaining evil in the world, the problem of human freedom, the problem of political action where such action is futile and the problem of living a moral life in a corrupt soci- ety are presented in a way which appeals to people who are far removed, in both time and place, from mid-nineteenth century Russia. No historian has ventured to "explain" the great flowering of the Russian novel in the mid-nineteenth century as a historical phenomenon. It resists ex- planation because literary events, trends and movements are always difficult for historians to explain. But it demands a historical explanation for several reasons. First, the question naturally arises why a literature of such power in http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Russian History Brill

Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev as a Historical Phenomenon

Weickhardt, George G.
Russian History , Volume 22 (1-4): 24 – Jan 1, 1995
Download PDF
32 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/tolstoi-dostoevskii-and-turgenev-as-a-historical-phenomenon-0FGKRSH5W6

References

References for this paper are not available at this time. We will be adding them shortly, thank you for your patience.

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1995 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0094-288X
eISSN
1876-3316
DOI
10.1163/187633195X00025
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

GEORGE G. WEICKHARDT (San Francisco, USA) TOLSTOI, DOSTOEVSKII AND TURGENEV AS A HISTORICAL PHENOMENON* The novels of Tolstoi, Dostoevskii and Turgenev possess a universality of appeal and significance. These novels confront fundamental moral, philosoph- ical and religious issues with directness and power. Such themes as crises of faith and denial, the search by the individual for a role in history, the quest by the individual for oneness with all mankind, the psychological forces which can drive a person to hideous crimes, the problem of explaining evil in the world, the problem of human freedom, the problem of political action where such action is futile and the problem of living a moral life in a corrupt soci- ety are presented in a way which appeals to people who are far removed, in both time and place, from mid-nineteenth century Russia. No historian has ventured to "explain" the great flowering of the Russian novel in the mid-nineteenth century as a historical phenomenon. It resists ex- planation because literary events, trends and movements are always difficult for historians to explain. But it demands a historical explanation for several reasons. First, the question naturally arises why a literature of such power in

Journal

Russian History – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1995

There are no references for this article.