Dostoevsky was a highly renowned author both during his lifetime and now today across the world. Many of his works are considered brilliant existential stories analyzing the characters' psychology while others are considered to be lesser so. In this post, I'll look at perspectives that both praise Dostoevsky and those that criticize.
*An important note on these critiques: some will focus on the fact that Dostoevsky himself had some psychological problems and will use this as a lens to analyze his work through.
Part of Dostoevsky's manuscript for the book Demons
The 1st Article: Negative Critique: "The Freud of Fiction?"
This author has several claims against Dostoevsky mostly based off of Dostoevsky's personal life interfering too much in his writing:
1. Dostoevsky's treatment of women-> Dostoevsky had an incredibly complicated relationship with his mother leading to him both hating and loving her. The author says that this could explain Dostoevsky's constant portrayal of women as either 'saints or whores'.
2. Dostoevsky was guilty of and aware of his writing being what others called "a cruel talent"-> in this, Dostoevsky showed too much of his own personality in his stories along with his own psychological and philosophical ideas.
3. The author summarizes by refuting all the claims that say that Dostoevsky was incredibly successful in breaking down a character through the projection of his own psychological struggles. The author claims it was 'at best a truism', and that when most psychoanalysts go through Dostoevsky's work they usually say phrases like 'what is known clinically' and never more personal.
The 2nd Article: Positive Critique: "The Mystery of Suffering: The Philosophy of Dostoevsky's Characters"
This essay discusses how Dostoevsky often uses suffering in his stories, and how he does it really well. The writer says that Dostoevsky used the two philosophies of Orthodox Christianity and Utopian Socialism to use to make his characters suffer. Some of his characters suffer from a religious factor, while others suffer from a social factor. The author claims that Dostoevsky carefully uses suffering in such a way that it is obvious to the reader that he believes people must suffer to become better. The author greatly praises Dostoevsky for being able to achieve this in his writing.
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