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 analogy...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Online |
| Sprog: | russisk |
| Udgivet: |
Firenze University Press
2023
|
| Fag: | |
| Online adgang: | ONIX_20230803_9791221501223_166 |
| Tags: |
Ingen Tags, Vær først til at tagge denne postø!
|
| 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. |
|---|