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The Hungarian reception of Dostoevsky until the 1920s in the context of European and Hungarian Modernism
Views:23This paper deals with the questions Dostoevsky’s reception in Hungary in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The author investigates the growing interest in Dostoevsky in the context of the new trends of art and literature and gives a detailed survey of the most characteristic reactions (i.e. reviews, studies, introductions to books) about the new translations and editions of Dostoevsky’s works. Among the most relevant questions addressed arestereotypes about Russian culture and people, living in Hungary duringthe past centuries, the various interpretations of Crime and Punishment, and some comparative aspects in the analyses of this novel.
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Bugs, Burrow, Inquisitor: Dostoevskian Intertexts in Eyeless in Gaza
Views:119The present article is devoted to the discussion of intertextual connections between Aldous Huxley’s Eyeless in Gaza (1936) and three works by Dostoevsky: Notes from the Underground(1864), Crime and Punishment (1869) and The Brothers Karamazov (1880, Grand Inquisitor scene). As is well-known, the Dostoevskian novel of ideas was a major inspiring force for Aldous Huxley’s art: Huxley’s rewriting of the Grand Inquisitor episode in Brave New World (1932) is probably the best-known case in point. Nonetheless, insufficient critical attention has been devoted to the actual intertextual connections between the two novelists’ output. As I have demonstrated earlier, on closer inspectionPoint Counter Point (1928) turns out to be a rewriting of Devils (1872), which, however, alsoproves to be a low point in Huxley’s assessment of Dostoevsky – a companion piece to his incidental vicious critique included in his 1929 essay on Baudelaire, in which Huxley also targets spiritual quest. Let me argue that Eyeless in Gaza can be read as a sequel to that polemic, in which a change of Huxley’s attitude to Dostoevsky is clearly notable: the novel provides a much more subtle and even respectful critique of Dostoevsky by implying the universal relevance of the Dostoevskian underground to the understanding of the modern human condition and by re-embracing spiritual quest.
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Harms – Gogol – Dostoevsky (“Old Women” – “Vij” – “Crime and Punishment”)
14 p.Views:182In terms of historical poetics and intertextuality, parallels are drawn between "Old Woman"
by D. Harms, "Vij" by N. Gogol and "Crime and Punishment" by F. Dostoevsky. As far as the
three authors are concerned, their common features are revealed, together with the transformation
of the motives of the ugly infernal old woman, which are depicted in the context of
mythopoetics, historiosophy and social history by the three authors. Concerning the texts produced
by their followers the term “post-text” is introduced, which is meant to include the dialogical
connotations of literary evolution. The role of “vertex composition” (a term coined by
V.M. Zhirmunsky) in works of Modernism/ Avant-garde is also touched upon.