EN 3452 Lecture Notes - Poor Folk, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Penal Labour
23 Apr 2014
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The concept of a double is one that repeats itself throughout dostoevsky"s works. Poor folk a humanistic tragedy, while the double is a philosophical tragedy: social and economic factors present in the double, but not primary, psychology is the focus: dostoevsky is writing pre-freud, pre-hegel, pre- One must subordinate oneself to the world of st. petersburg in order to survive in it: metaphor for the manner in which reality presses on the psyche, subordinate yourself to survive, or withdraw. Revolt and madness will bring rebirth not in the double, but later: god, crime, universal dialogue not present yet, though these will become predominant themes in dostoevsky"s later works. Compare nicholai gogol"s diary of a madman to the double. Yakov petrovich golyadkin has almost no happy moments throughout the novella, only desperate ones: golyadkin creates himself, but cannot sustain himself in the world he creates.
