CLT 361
Annotated
Bibliography
The genesis of The Brothers Karamazov:
the aesthetics, ideology, and psychology of text making
This book, published in 1990, “studies the ways in which
Dostoevsky transformed the materials he incorporated into The Brothers Karamazov”.
The author, Robert L. Belknap, had previously written a book about how the
different elements in The Brothers Karamazov had contributed to the
effective whole but then wanted to discuss what materials Dostoevsky had read before
writing The Brothers Karamazov and how his interpretations of those
texts influenced his novel.
This book is divided into nine chapters. In the first
chapter, Belknap states his objective. He admits that knowing what specific
materials Dostoevsky read is a difficult task because they “are lost
forever”. His interpretations can be
partly understood through several memoirs, letters, and newspapers he wrote or
kept but of course, it is impossible to know his exact reactions and thoughts. However,
Belknap and other scholars have determined that Dostoevsky liked to reuse
characteristics and themes throughout his works “until they had no more to
offer him”. For example, one of his characters from “The Landlady” was
transformed into the Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov, and
another became Alesha Karamazov. He also reused types of relationships, like
the dynamics between brothers and fathers, which can be seen in Crime and
Punishment, among other works. Another inspiration for The Brothers
Karamazov that Belknap sites is the popular study of memory during the 19th
century. Dostoevsky was concerned with memory mainly because he had epileptic
fits and thought they would affect his memory. He involved the issue of memory
as a theme in The Brothers Karamazov. Throughout the novel, from the
first sentence to the end, Fedor’s death is recollected and people share their
memories.
The book carries on this way, going into great detail about
different novels, ideas, and events that influenced Dostoevsky. Belknap draws
upon his own research, primary documents, the texts of Dostoevsky, and the
large body of work that has been developed based on The Brothers Karamazov.
The chapters that divide “The genesis of The Brothers
Karamazov: the aesthetics, ideology, and psychology of text making” are as
follows:
· Chapter 1: Introductory
· Chapter 2: Dostoevsky Read Enormously
in Books and Periodicals Old and New, Russian and European, Good and Bad,
Literary and Nonliterary
· Chapter 3: Dostoevsky Condensed a
Lifetime of Preparation into a Year of Planning and Two Years of Writing
· Chapter 4: Dostoevsky Kept Merging
and Reworking the Sources of Mitia Karamazov to Form a New Character and a New
Plot
· Chapter 5: The Theme of Memory Enters
the Novel from a Rich Body of Reading and other Experiences
· Chapter 6: The Origins of a Single
Paragraph Reveal the Unconscious Transformations that Shape Alesha Karamazov
· Chapter 7: Dostoevsky’s Attitudes
Shape the Arguments Ivan Karamazov Inherits and Uses
· Chapter 8: Dostoevsky’s Attitudes
Shaped the Attitudes of His Characters and His Readers
· Chapter 9: Conclusion
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