Reawakening National Identity: Dostoevskii’s Diary of a Writer and its Impact on Russian Society

231 Pages·2007·10.403 MB·English

by  Raffaella Vassena

Reawakening National Identity

Raffaella Vassena
Reawakening National Identity
Dostoevskii’s Diary of a Writer and
its Impact on Russian Society
PETER LANG
Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Oxford • Wien
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ISBN 978-3-03911-206-7
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Printed in Germany
For Max

Acknowledgements
This book is the result of my research and conversations with many
people throughout Italy, Russia, and the United States. As lack of
space prevents me from listing them all, I will mention only those
people whose help was crucial to my work.
I am immensely grateful to William Mills Todd III for believing in
this project from the very beginning, introducing me to the world of
Harvard University, and helping me at every stage in the writing of
this book. I also thank Deborah Martinsen for carefully reading the
manuscript and correcting my English; Svetlana Boym for sharing her
brilliant intuitions about Dostoevskii, and graduate students of the
Department of Slavic Studies at Harvard University for their support
and friendship.
I thank all my professors at Dipartimento di Studi Linguistics Let­
tered e Filologici - Sezione di Slavistica - of the Université degli
Studi di Milano, especially Damiano Rebecchini and Elda Garetto. I
am also grateful to Cinzia De Lotto, Guido Carpi, Igor Volgin and the
Dostoevskii Group of Pushkinskii Dom, Saint Petersburg.
A special thanks goes to Professor Fausto Malcovati, who first in­
spired me and encouraged me to cultivate my passion for Russian
literature.
But my greatest debt of gratitude is due to my family, my friends, and
above all to my husband Maxim, who always supported me, cheered
me on, and waited for me during my endless absences abroad. May
my dedication reward him, at least partly, for his patience.
I alone am responsible for any errors of translation, fact, or judgement
contained herein.
Parts of the text have appeared in different form in Slavic Review 65
(2006), 1: 45-65, Studi Slavistici 3 (2006) and are reproduced by per­
mission of the publisher.
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Contents
Prologue.................................................................................................. 11
Part One - The Creation of a Rhetoric
Chapter One: The Role of the Reader in Dostoevskii’s Creation... 17
Chapter Two: The Diary of a Writer: Author, Genre, and Reader. 43
Part Two - The Reactions of Russian Society
Chapter Three: The Press Debate....................................................... 83
Chapter Four: The Diary of a Writer’s Success............................... 95
Chapter Five: Introductory Notes on Readers’ Letters.................... 109
Chapter Six: Dostoevskii’s Omnipotence:
Readers Asking for Help.............................................................. 129
Chapter Seven: Looking for the Right Interlocutors:
Women Readers............................................................................ 147
Chapter Eight: The Moment to Say the Last Word:
the Russian Idea and the Eastern Question................................ 169
Chapter Nine: The Extreme Paradox: the Jewish Question........... 191
Epilogue................................................................................................. 215
Bibliography......................................................................................... 221
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