The Structure Of The Brothers Karamazov

Long unavailable, The Structure of "The Brothers Karamazov" is a classic in American Slavic studies. Robert L. Belknap's study clarifies the complex architectonics of Dostoevsky's most carefully constructed and painstakingly written book by employing structuralist critical methods. This first paperback edition includes a new preface by the author, reflecting on the theory of the book and on recent developments in Dostoevsky criticism and relevant critical theory.

The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He spent nearly two years writing it. The author died less than four months after its publication. The Brothers Karamazov is a passionate philosophical novel set in 19th century Russia, that enters deeply into the ethical debates of God, free will, and morality. It is a spiritual drama of moral struggles concerning faith, doubt, and reason, set against a modernizing Russia, with a plot which revolves around the subject of patricide. Since its publication, it has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in literature. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. His literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmosphere of 19th-century Russia. Many of his works contain a strong emphasis on Christianity, and its message of absolute love, forgiveness and charity, explored within the realm of the individual, confronted with all of life's hardships and beauty. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.

Belknap (Slavic languages, Columbia U.) traces Dostoevsky's last, great novel to its sources, exploring how the author consciously transformed his experience and his readings to construct the work. It is both a lucid analysis of a complex and difficult text and an inquiry into the process of literary creation. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. P

Fyodor Dostoevsky completed his final novel— The Brothers Karamazov—in 1880. A work of universal appeal and significance, his exploration of good and evil immediately gained an international readership and today “remains harrowingly alive in the face of our present day worries, paradoxes, and joys,” observes Dostoevsky scholar Robin Feuer Miller. In this engaging and original book, she guides us through the complexities of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, offering keen insights and a celebration of the author’s unparalleled powers of imagination. Miller’s critical companion to The Brothers Karamazov explores the novel’s structure, themes, characters, and artistic strategies while illuminating its myriad philosophical and narrative riddles. She discusses the historical significance of the book and its initial reception, and in a new preface discusses the latest scholarship on Dostoevsky and the novel that crowned his career.

"The Grand Inquisitor" is a significant and widely read chapter from Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov." Dostoevsky's novel was first published in 1880. "The Grand Inquisitor" is a stand-alone section within the novel where Ivan Karamazov tells the story to his brother, Alyosha, of a Grand Inquisitor who questions and confronts Jesus Christ upon His return to Earth. In the story, the Grand Inquisitor represents the authority of the church and the state, while Jesus Christ represents spiritual and moral truth. The Grand Inquisitor's argument revolves around the idea that the church and state must control and limit individual freedom for the sake of the common people, who are not capable of handling true freedom. This section of the novel is often studied independently because it presents a thought-provoking exploration of religious, philosophical, and moral themes. Dostoevsky's work is celebrated for its deep and complex examinations of the human condition and the role of faith and morality in society. "The Grand Inquisitor" is a prime example of his ability to grapple with these profound questions.

The text of The Brothers Karamazov is removed from English-speaking readers today not only by time but also by linguistic and cultural boundaries. Victor Terras's companion work provides readers with a richer understanding of the Dostoevsky novel as the expression of a philosophy and a work of art. In his introduction, Terras outlines the genesis, main ideas, and structural peculiarities of the novel as well as Dostoevsky's political, philosophical, and aesthetic stance. The detailed commentary takes the reader through the novel, clarifying aspects of Russian life, the novel's sociopolitical background, and a number of polemic issues. Terras identifies and explains hundreds of literary and biblical quotations and allusions. He discusses symbols, recurrent images, and structural stylistic patterns, including those lost in English translation.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov is unquestionably one of the greatest works of world literature. With its dramatic portrayal of a Russian family in crisis and its intense investigation into the essential questions of human existence, the novel has had a major impact on writers and thinkers across a broad range of disciplines, from psychology to religious and political philosophy. This proposed reader's guide has two major goals: to help the reader understand the place of Dostoevsky's novel in Russian and world literature, and to illuminate the writer's compelling and complex artistic vision. The plot of the novel centers on the murder of the patriarch of the Karamazov family and the subsequent attempt to discover which of the brothers bears responsibility for the murder, but Dostoevsky's ultimate interests are far more thought-provoking. Haunted by the question of God's existence, Dostoevsky uses the character of Ivan Karamazov to ask what kind of God would create a world in which innocent children have to suffer, and he hoped that his entire novel would provide the answer. The design of Dostoevsky's work, in which one character poses questions that other characters must try to answer, provides a stimulating basis for reader engagement. Having taught university courses on Dostoevsky's work for over twenty years, Julian W. Connolly draws upon modern and traditional approaches to the novel to produce a reader's guide that stimulate the reader's interest and provides a springboard for further reflection and study.