The Female Characters of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Di Bartolomeo, Lisa (1993) The Female Characters of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. MLitt(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Full text available as:
[thumbnail of 10992255.pdf] PDF
Download (11MB)

Abstract

Dostoevsky is renowned throughout the world as a great psychological writer. His deep understanding of human behavior enabled him to create within his oeuvre some of the most memorable, credible characters -many of them female -in world literature. Unfortunately, Dostoevsky scholarship has tended to forget the women enlivening his myriad works, leaving them largely unobserved. The present study was undertaken in an effort to provide a unified examination of all of these women, with special regard to their similarities and their differences. Despite the prevailing opinion, which holds that they can be fit into tidy categories, Dostoevsky's women never cease to defy typology and stray from their assigned slots. Their allure for the reader is not part of some adherence to a predictable persona. Rather, it is their all-too-human irrational disobedience and unforeseeable autonomy which enlivens them and the books they inhabit. For it is in their breathing individuality that the reader finds the power and the reality of Dostoevsky's female characters; in their diverse forms and nuances shines the magic ore of Dostoevsky's genius, his "fantastic realism.".

Item Type: Thesis (MLitt(R))
Qualification Level: Masters
Additional Information: Adviser: Martin Dewhirst
Keywords: Slavic literature
Date of Award: 1993
Depositing User: Enlighten Team
Unique ID: glathesis:1993-74634
Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
Date Deposited: 27 Sep 2019 17:27
Last Modified: 27 Sep 2019 17:27
URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74634

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year