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 A.M.GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Povarskaya 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia
fedor@dostmirkult.ru

ISSN 2619-0311 (Print)
ISSN 2712-8512 (Online)

The Adolescent as Sentimental Education

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  • Author: Olga А. Meerson
  • Information about the author:

    D.Sc. in Philology, Professor, Department of Slavic Languages, Georgetown University, 3700 O St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20057, U.S.A.

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  • For citation:

    Meerson, O.V. “The Adolescent as Sentimental Education”. Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 2 (14), 2021, pp. 18-36. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2021-2-18-36
  • Received: 06 Mar. 2021
  • Published: 25 Jun. 2021
  • Issue: 2021 no. 2(14)
  • Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING
  • Pages: 18-36
  • DOI: Visit Website
  • UDK: 821.161.1.0
  • BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)
  • Keywords: Narrative, Author vs Narrator, Taboos in Discourse, Bildungsroman, Polyphony, Implicating the Reader, Sore spots as value symptoms.
  • Abstract: This article dwells on my earlier method, of mining discursive taboos, specific for each novel by Dostoevsky, for the key values made prominent in these novels. More than the original chapter in my 1998 book, Dostoevsky’s Taboos, the article applies this method to the specific poetics of The Adolescent as Bildungsroman. As Arkady, the character, and then, eventually, the narrator, learns about his own faux pas about violating others’ taboos, he also learns about values entailed by these taboos. He becomes less selfish and more sensitive to the reality of other people and their pain and sore spots. As readers, we learn about compassion and a certain imperative system of values, together with this character, just as these newly unmentionable values emerge or transpire for him. Rather than being told about the “before and after” of the character, we are implicated in his transformation, learning his lessons together with him and never having any moral immunity from his faults or any opportunity to judge him from above.

References

1. Bakhtin, M.M. Sobranie sochinenii: v 7 tomakh [Collected Works: in 7 Vols.]. Moscow, Russkoe Slovo Publ., 1996-… (In Russ.)

2. Dostoevskii, F.M. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii: v 30 t. [Complete Works: in 30 Vols.]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1974-1990. (In Russ.)

3. Meerson, Olga. Dostoevsky’s Taboos. Dresden; Munich, Dresden University Press, 1998. 232 p. (In English)

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