Chapter Ascetism and Incontinence and Dostoevsky's Gift of Tears

In Dostoevsky's binary poetics, an opposition can be drawn between two fundamental stances - asceticism and incontinence. Ascetics adhere to an ethos of self-restraint in response to the desires of the flesh. Incontinents act spontaneously to gratify their desires. The current study draws an an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Apollonio, Carol (auth)
Other Authors: Garstka, Christoph (auth)
Format: Electronic Book Chapter
Language:Russian
Published: Florence Firenze University Press 2023
Series:Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici 52
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Summary:In Dostoevsky's binary poetics, an opposition can be drawn between two fundamental stances - asceticism and incontinence. Ascetics adhere to an ethos of self-restraint in response to the desires of the flesh. Incontinents act spontaneously to gratify their desires. The current study draws an analogy between the behavior pattern of Dostoevsky's self-denying intellectual heroes and that of exiled castrate (skoptsy) communities. Dostoevsky's ascetics represent a cerebral mindset attracted to visions of social utopia; their intellectualizing detaches them from the life of the body and thus weirdly parallels the strictures of the skoptsy. An encounter between an ascetic and a prostitute serves as a central plot moment in works such as Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground.
Physical Description:1 electronic resource (10 p.)
ISBN:979-12-215-0122-3.08
9791221501223
Access:Open Access