Dostoevsky and His Demons
Craig Cravens
Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures
“So great is the worth of Dostoevsky that to have produced him is sufficient justification for the existence of the Russian people in the world.” — Nicholas Berdiaev
This course is an examination of homicide, suicide, patricide, and redemption through a study of the psychological novels of Fyodor Mikhalovich Dostoevsky. Although he is considered the most “Russian” of Russian writers, he finds many enthusiastic readers in the West, and his influence on modern Western culture and civilization has been enormous. Reading his works is one way to understand the many writers and thinkers who learned from him.
The course is a literature course, thus primary attention will be paid to narrative style, symbolism, imagery, point of view, structure, themes, allegory, and so on.
Catalog Information: HON-H 303 INTERDEPARTMENTAL COLLOQUIA