"In her new book Kristeva explores the surprising modernity of the tormented and visionary Russian author. "Wherever I went and whatever I did, I pushed life to the limit, a limit I've spent my whole life trying to surpass," he wrote to his friend, the poet Apollon Maykov, in 1867. And sustained by his faith in the Orthodox doctrine of the Word incarnate, he did just that, betting on the power of language and narrative with the polyphonic novel, and defying a world - with or without God - of nihilism, and its alter ego, fundamentalism. The intense nature of his characters, ranging from pitiful monstrosity to "insect-like" insignificance, prefigure the carceral mold of the totalitarian universe that would emerge with the Holocaust and the Gulag. Julia Kristeva presents a compelling portrait of Dostoyevsky from the unprecedented angle of language, examining the literary giant and his oeuvre within the context of the 21st century where, at long last, "anything is possible." This is a very insightful book, and provides us with an intensely personal engagement with Dostoyevsky's works. In addition to language, she focuses on Dostoyevsky's sexuality and on his relation to religion and theology. There is no other book that brings both themes together"--
Julia Kristeva has been both attracted and repelled by Dostoyevsky since her youth. In this extraordinary book, by turns poetic and intensely personal, she brings her unique critical sensibility to bear on the tormented and visionary Russian author.
Kristeva ranges widely across Dostoyevskys novels and his journalism, plunging deep into the great worksand many of the smaller onesto investigate her fascination with the Russian author. What emerges is a luminous vision of the writers achievements, seen in a wholly new way through Kristevas distinctive perspective on language. With her keen psychoanalytical eye, she offers brilliant insights into the passionate heroines of the great novels. Focusing on Dostoyevskys polyphonic writing, Kristeva also demonstrates the importance of Orthodox Christianity throughout his body of work, analyzing the complex ways his carnivalesque theology informs his fiction and commentary.
An original and profound interpretation of one of the nineteenth centurys greatest writers, this books insights are also relevant to the twentieth and twenty-first centuriesup to our unsettled present, to which Kristevas humane reading of the suffering Russian author brings understanding and even solace.
Julia Kristeva has been both attracted and repelled by Dostoyevsky since her youth. In this extraordinary book, by turns poetic and intensely personal, she brings her unique critical sensibility to bear on the tormented and visionary Russian author.
