From Violence to Silence
Vicissitudes of Reading (in)The Idiot
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4916918 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alexander Spektor (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 552-572 |
| Publication date | 2013-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Slavic Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0037-6779 • E-ISSN: 2325-7784 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5612/slavicreview.72.3.0552 |
| OpenAlex | W2570779297 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 16 |
How the narrative dynamics ofThe Idiotshape and inform its ethics is the focus of this article by Alexander Spektor.The Idiotis one of the most radical of Fedor Dostoevskii's novelistic experiments inasmuch as it questions the integrity of the self created through the process of narrative representation and interpretation. Dostoevskii achieves this effect by contrasting the idea of the inherent distance between sign and meaning with Myshkin's initial belief in the possibility of the transcendental signifier. The reader is gradually forced to accept that any form of participation in the big dialogue of the novel is bound to cause intense rivalry for the control of its meaning, which ultimately leads to physical violence either against the self (Ippolit and Nastasia Filippovna) or against others (Rogozhin). Dostoevskii undermines the integrity of any narrative formation of the self, including the self of the reader, by framing it within nonverbal acts of violence and compassion. Hence,The Idiotcan be read as aBildungsroman, in which the protagonist, Prince Myshkin, traverses the distance between the novel's is-an attempt to secure positive ethical meaning (within an established) narrative-and the novel'sought, the silent and nonsensical acts of compassion that, ultimately, defy signification. To make sense ofThe Idiotrequires the reader to participate in an ethically compromised endeavor. Forced to do justice to the text, the reader also has to bear responsibility for the violence inherent in any narrative construction of the self
Aesthetics · Art · Compassion · Epistemology · Idiot · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Narrative · Silence · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Psychology · Russian Literature and Bakhtin Studies
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
| Citation span | 2016 - 2016 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |