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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| Format: | Electronic Book Chapter |
| Language: | Russian |
| Published: |
Florence
Firenze University Press
2023
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| Series: | Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici
52 |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | OAPEN Library: download the publication OAPEN Library: description of the publication |
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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. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 electronic resource (10 p.) |
| ISBN: | 979-12-215-0122-3.08 9791221501223 |
| Access: | Open Access |