Socialism and Christianity: Problems of Attribution and Publication of Dostoevsky Cover Image

«Социализм и Христианство»: проблемы атрибуции и публикации замысла Достоевского
Socialism and Christianity: Problems of Attribution and Publication of Dostoevsky

Author(s): Marina Vladimirovna Zavarkina
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Fiction, Russian Literature, Philology
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: Dostoevsky; diaries and notebooks; manuscript; socialism; Christianity; problems of publication; attribution; Chernyshevsky

Summary/Abstract: The article is devoted to the unrealized idea of F. M. Dostoevsky called Socialism and Christianity, which the writer worked on in the early 1860s. The researcher examines the origin of the draft and its publications, and attempts to chronologically attribute them based on existing opinions on this issue. Research revealed that this idea could have encompassed other drafts contained in Dostoevsky's notebooks and diaries of the specified period. The formal thematic compilation of Dostoevsky's notes on socialism and Christianity, which were presented in the initial publications, only indirectly outlined the boundaries of the draft, overlooking certain contingent parts of the text. Focusing on the internal (related to the diaries and notebooks themselves) and external (related to the writer’s artistic and journalistic texts) contexts, the researcher tries both to expand the boundaries of the draft, and to analyze the emerging ties and interconnections. Certain controversial interpretations of Dostoevsky's handwritten text lead to a new level of its comprehension and deepen our understanding of Dostoevsky's polemics with his contemporaries, in particular with Chernyshevsky.

  • Issue Year: 7/2020
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 69-97
  • Page Count: 28
  • Language: English, Russian