Critiquing the Utopia of the norm: reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's the Idiot
Date
2008-12
Authors
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Publisher
Central Department of English Kirtipur, Kathmandu
Abstract
This research makes a study of interweaving issues of disability—instances of
epilepsy and derision in the major characters, and the subjugation of Myshkin in Russian
Aristocratic class, in particular – in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot. Together with
investigating the ways in which Myshkin and Nastasya Filippovna are represented in this
Russian text written at the high time of Russian aristocracy, principal focus has been to
bring into light the Russian aristocratic culture that subjugates peoples who slightly
disagree with the then social values. In particular, my attempt has been to scrutinize The
Idiot that emerges as a ruthless commentary over Russian aristocratic culture. Whereas
Dostoevsky chronicles the marginalized ‘abnormal’ voices on literary disability studies,
the novel comes to put the characteristic features of Russian aristocracy in the pretext of
so called disabled people’s degradation. This research follows the latest contributions on
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s work. Dostoevsky delves in the life of Myshkin and Nastasya
Fillippovna to expose the sufferings and contingencies in that they had to carryout solely
because of their so-called physical and psychological abnormality
Description
Keywords
English literature, The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Novel