Anti-theodicy narrative in the novel “Vadim” of M.Yu. Lermontovова

Author(s):  
Huang Xiaomin ◽  

“Vadim” is the first experience of Mikhail Lermontov in prose. Some Russian scholars define it as ahistorical novel. The combination of themes of individual revenge with the theme of peasant revolt is a peculiar feature of “Vadim”. The author of the novel raises the question of the origin of evil, presupposed by “heocracy”, and by analyzing the hero Vadim’s revenge motive, the anti-theodicy’s narrative mechanism of the novel can be explained. The scene in which the hero abets his companion to hang the captured old man is a direct experiment of anti- theodicy and a powerful testimony of the writer's anti- theodicy standpoint. According to Leibniz’s theory, Vadim's evil belongs to moral evil. Lermontov’s view of good and evil echoes Leibniz’s theory. Leibniz believes that evil exists to show good and make it the object of opposition, and that man can achieve perfection in the process of winning good over evil. From the novel two righteous images — the nameless old man and the wife of a soldier, persisted in their beliefs in times of crisis, which showed the writer’s inheritance of theodicy’s standpoint. Before hanging, the nameless old man recalls the death of Jesus Christ and at the last moment of his life still believed that Jesus had conquered death. The scene of the torture of a soldier’s wife resembles the “martyrdom of the righteous”. For the truth, for what she believes, she is willing to sacrifice herself. This is the proof of the two repeated verses in the novel: “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest”. Lermontov’s theological view in “Vadim” is paradoxical.

Litera ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Valeriia Bugorskaia

This article examines the unfinished Mikhail Lermontov’s novel “Vadim”. This oeuvre is one of the signature works of the writer: on the one hand, it recapitulates the earlier period of Lermontov’s works, while on the other – represents a stepping stone, characterized by mastering new genres and reflecting general trends of Russian literature of the beginning of the 1830’s. The goal consists in the analysis of central conflict unfolded between the protagonists Vadim and Olga, which reflects choice of a person between good and evil. The historical-literary and hermeneutic methods are applied in the course of this research. The novelty lies in the author’s suggestion to examine romantic conflicts in the context of Christian worldview. The implications of M. Y. Lermontov’s novel are decoded via attraction of the texts of Holy Scripture, which leads to the conclusion that the beginning of work on the novel “Vadim” coincides with Lermontov’s heightened interest to the problem of good and evil in Christian understanding. Mastering the new prosaic genre, the writer continues to amplify the common to his works theme of interaction of the Divine, angelical, demonic and human beginnings.


Author(s):  
Stuart Bell

Abstract “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot. Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” So declared the novelist and secularist H. G. Wells in a letter to his mistress, Rebecca West, in May 1917. His claim was that, because of him, Britain was “full of theological discussion” and theological books were “selling like hot cakes”. He was lunching with liberal churchmen and dining with bishops. Certainly, the first of the books published during Wells’s short “religious period”, the novel Mr. Britling Sees It Through, had sold very well on both sides of the Atlantic and made Wells financially secure. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy (“Woodbine Willie”) wrote that, “Everyone ought to read Mr. H. G. Wells’s great novel, Mr. Britling Sees It Through. It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Yet, Wells’s God was explicitly a finite God, and his theology was far from orthodox. How can we account for his boast and for the clerical affirmation which he certainly did receive? This article examines and re-evaluates previous accounts of the responses of clergy to Wells’s writing, correcting some narratives. It discusses the way in which many clergy used Mr. Britling as a means by which to engage in a populist way with the question of theodicy, and examines the letters which Wells received from several prominent clerics, locating their responses in the context of their own theological writings. This is shown to be key to understanding the reaction of writers such as Studdert Kennedy to Mr. Britling Sees It Through. Finally, an assessment is made of the veracity of Wells’s boasting to his mistress, concluding that his claims were somewhat exaggerated. “Lambeth Palace is my Washpot, Over Fulham have I cast my breeches.” Mit diesen Worten erklärte der literarisch außergewöhnlich erfolgreiche und entschieden säkular denkende, kirchenkritische Schriftsteller und Science-Fiction-Pionier Herbert George Wells seiner Geliebten, dass seinetwegen Großbritannien “full of theological discussion” sei. Nicht ohne Eitelkeit schrieb er es seinem im September 1916 mit Blick auf den Krieg geschriebenen und stark autobiographisch gefärbten Roman Mr. Britling Sees it Through von knapp 450 Seiten zu, dass theologische Bücher reißenden Absatz fänden. Auch war er stolz darauf, liberale Kleriker zum Lunch zu treffen und von Bischöfen zum abendlichen Dinner eingeladen zu werden. In einer kurzen Phase seines Lebens war – oder inszenierte sich – Wells als ein frommer, gläubiger Mensch. Sein damals veröffentlichter Roman Mr. Britling Sees It Through verkaufte sich sowohl in Nordamerika als auch im Heimatland so gut, dass der Autor nun definitiv finanziell gesichert war. Der anglikanische Priester und Dichter Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, der im Ersten Weltkrieg Woodbine Willie genannt wurde, weil er verletzten und sterbenden Soldaten in den Phasen der Vorbereitung auf den Tod Woodbine-Zigaretten anbot, empfahl die Lektüre von Wells’ “great novel” Mr. Britling mit den Worten: “It is a gallant and illuminating attempt to state the question, and to answer it. His thought has brought him to a very real and living faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, and has also brought relief to many troubled minds among the officers of the British Army.” Allerdings war H. G. Wells’ Gott ein durchaus endlicher Gott, und seine Theologie war alles andere als orthodox. Wie lassen sich dennoch seine evidente Prahlerei und die emphatische Zustimmung zu seinem Roman in den britischen Klerikereliten erklären? Im Aufsatz werden zunächst einige ältere Deutungen der Zustimmung führender Kleriker zu Wells’ Roman untersucht und einige der dabei leitenden Deutungsmuster kritisch infrage gestellt. Deutlich wird, dass nicht wenige anglikanische Geistliche Mr. Britling dazu nutzten, um höchst populistisch das umstrittene Theodizeeproblem anzusprechen. Auch werden die Briefe prominenter Geistlicher an Wells analysiert, mit Blick auf ihre eigenen Publikationen. Diese Reaktionen haben stark Studdert Kennedys Haltung zu Mr. Britling Sees It Through beeinflusst. Besonders aufrichtig war Wells mit Blick auf sich selbst allerdings nicht. Die Selbstinszenierung gegenüber seiner Geliebten war einfach nur peinliche Übertreibung.


Author(s):  
Sherene Nicholas Khouri

Was Jesus crucified on the cross? Did Jesus die by crucifixion? This topic generates so much emotion and conflict in Christian-Islamic dialogue as many theories have developed to prove one side of the equation. While several methods can answer Islamic objections against the biblical belief, the evidential Apologetics is the best method to provide evidence for the Christian claims. Evidential Apologetics is one of the methods that seeks to prove the truthfulness of the Christian worldview by showing historical and scientific evidences. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to use the evidential method to answer three major objections that Muslims raise against the crucifixion of Jesus: Jesus was never crucified, the swoon theory, and the substitute theory. The paper will conclude that there are surmounted historical and scientific evidences that support the event of Jesus’s crucifixion.


JAMA ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 255 (20) ◽  
pp. 2757
Author(s):  
William D. Edwards
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Наталія Юріївна Бондар

The article deals with the influence of the archetype of the way on the formation of the personality in the novel Paper Towns by John Green. The purpose of this article is to determine the originality of the image of an American teenager and to identify the influence of the archetype of the way on the formation of the personality, as well as to consider the archetype of the way as a real path of the character in the novel Paper Towns by John Green, taking into account the individual author’s interpretation. This object of research has been chosen because through it one can comprehend the specifics of the psychology of a teenager and define the artistic features that distinguish the author’s stylistics and worldview. The comprehensive research methodology has been used in the work: the synthesis of the comparative historical method, holistic analysis, elements of mythopoetic and hermeneutic methods. In the novel Paper Towns by John Green mythopoetic consciousness presupposes ontological ambivalent intentions in the archetype of the child / teenager (good and evil children). The metaphorical extension of the archetype of the child / teenager has been revealed in this article. All the images of teenagers are given in the development, on the way to growing up. The originality of the archetype of the way here lies in the fact that it merges with the concepts of Space and Chaos, confirming the idea of the unity of mankind. The metaphors themselves are also peculiar, associated with the archetype of the way: inanimate strings, gradually turning into living blades of grass, intertwined with roots with all that exists. During the search for Margo, Quentin grows up significantly, becomes more tolerant to their friends, and he learns to take responsibility for him. The image of Margo is the image of a rebel against any lack of freedom that it is inevitable in the “golden cage”. It is also revealed how Quentin is influenced by the new world opened during his trips, and his personal environment: for example, Radar opens his eyes to the fact that he does not need to demand too much from others. Both Margo is changed (from a “paper” girl – to a real one) and Ben and Radar are changed (false interests go into the background; everyone learns to expose himself to risks and troubles for the sake of friendship and human salvation). Ben and Radar are also shown in the development, in a short time they learn to understand each other and distinguish false values from true ones. These changes occur with all the teenagers, regardless of their skin color and nationality, and such an interpretation of the insignificance of formal differences is also a new word of the author.


2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-238
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Stout

Daniel M. Stout, “Little, Maybe Less: Little Dorrit’s Minimal Moralia” (pp. 207–238) Against our ordinary ways of reading the novel, this essay argues that Charles Dickens’s Little Dorrit (1857) represents a stark refusal of the logics of accountability that necessarily underwrite any program of social reform. In pairing its critique of Circumlocution (which programmatically undervalues desert) with its critique of the Marshalsea (which programmatically overstates debt), the novel points not toward a future of happy proportionality—in which innovation might be meaningfully recognized and infractions responded to humanely—but toward a way of thinking that stands outside the liberal logics of exchange (of action and consequence, of sin and redemption, of debt and repayment) that animate both social critique and social reform. Rather than a reformist text, Little Dorrit’s horizon is a world beyond good and evil—or, as we might also call it, after liberalism.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 90-94
Author(s):  
N. Telegina ◽  
T. Butsyak

For the purpose of defining Iris Murdoch’s artistic method a complex investigation of the problems and style of her famous novel “The Black Prince” was made. Special attention was given to the philosophical problems of Good and Evil, Contingency and Necessity in human life, absurdity, choice, aloofness, to the philosophical aspect of the novel, which is revealed with the help of the flash-back technique. The problems raised in the novel, its sensitive main character absorbed in psychoanalysis and looking for the sense of existence, naturalistic details & the postscripts, revealing different subjective points of view on the same events, prove that the novel should be regarded as existentialist


Author(s):  
Анастасия Николаевна Кошечко ◽  
Алина Сергеевна Шилова

Введение. Предпринята попытка исследования рецепции антропологического идеала в романе Ф. М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы» русскими религиозными философами порубежной эпохи XIX–XX вв. Аутентичное понимание и интерпретация ключевых идей писателя о человеческом идеале, его ценностях и смысле жизни возможны только в контексте православной антропологии. Важность этого материала не ограничивается осмыслением проблемы антропологического идеала и его влияния на дальнейшее развитие русской религиозно-философской мысли, позволяет исследовать особенности художественного мира романа, в том числе специфику репрезентации в идейном поле произведения авторского начала, мировоззрения писателя. Материал и методы. Материалом исследования послужили работы В. С. Соловьева «Три речи в память Достоевского», В. В. Розанова «Легенда о Великом инквизиторе», Н. А. Бердяева «Миросозерцание Достоевского», Н. О. Лосского «Достоевский и его христианское миропонимание», канонический текст романа Ф. М. Достоевского «Братья Карамазовы». Используются культурно-исторический, сравнительно-сопоставительный, структурно-типологический методы. Результаты и обсуждение. Наука о Достоевском начинается именно с трудов русских религиозных философов и мыслителей конца XIX – начала XX в., которые идеи о сущности человека, его предназначении, идеале делают содержательным ядром своих размышлений. Итоговый роман Великого Пятикнижия «Братья Карамазовы» как квинтэссенция жизненного и творческого пути Достоевского, неразрывно связанный с духовными и аксиологическими императивами православной антропологии, наиболее часто привлекается религиозными философами для рефлексии ключевых доминант собственных философских концепций, анализа и аргументации идей. Этот материал позволяет исследовать особенности художественного мира романа, специфику репрезентации в идейном поле произведения мировоззрения писателя и авторского начала, антропологического идеала, неразрывно связанного для Достоевского с такими духовными и ценностными доминантами, как Христос, Православие, святость, народность, добро и зло, и выявить его влияние на дальнейшее развитие русской религиозно-философской мысли. Заключение. Антропологический идеал Достоевского, по мысли религиозных философов, опирается на православное учение о человеке, раскрывающее как антиномичность человеческой природы (pro et contra в терминологии писателя), так и бытийную ее устремленность к Богу, Истине, потребность в добре, вне которых личность осознает свое не-бытие. Доминантами антропологического идеала писателя, которые находят отражение в трудах религиозных философов, становятся святость, красота как этическая доминанта личности, укорененность в ценностях и смыслах христоцентричной в своих основаниях русской культуры. Introduction. This article attempts to study the reception of the anthropological ideal in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov” by Russian religious philosophers of the late 19th–20th centuries. Authentic understanding and interpretation of the writer’s key ideas about the human ideal, its values and the meaning of life is possible only in the context of Orthodox anthropology. The importance of this material is not limited to comprehending the problem of the anthropological ideal and its influence on the further development of Russian religious and philosophical thought; moreover, it allows one to explore the peculiarities of the artistic world of the novel, including the specifics of the representation of the author’s principle in the ideological field of the work, the peculiarities of the writer’s worldview. Material and methods. The research material was the work of V. S. Solovyov “Three Speeches in memory of Dostoevsky”, V. V. Rozanov “The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor”, N. А. Berdyaeva “Dostoevsky’s worldview”, N. O. Lossky “Dostoevsky and his Christian worldview”, the canonical text of the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”. The work uses cultural and historical, comparative, structural and typological methods. Results and discussion. The science of Dostoevsky begins precisely with the works of Russian religious philosophers and thinkers of the late XIX – early XX centuries, which ideas about the essence of man, his purpose, ideally make him a meaningful core of his thoughts. The final novel of the Great Pentateuch “The Brothers Karamazov” as a quintessence of Dostoevsky’s life and creative path, inextricably connected with the spiritual and axiological imperatives of Orthodox anthropology, is most often attracted by religious philosophers to reflect key dominants of their own philosophical concepts, analyze and argue ideas. This material allows us to explore the features of the artistic world of the novel, the specifics of representation in the ideological field of the work of the writer’s worldview and author’s beginning, the features of the anthropological ideal, inextricably linked for Dostoevsky with such spiritual and value dominants as Christ, Orthodoxy, holiness, nationality, good and evil, and to identify its influence on the further development of Russian religious and philosophical thought. Conclusion. Dostoevsky’s anthropological ideal, according to religious philosophers, is based on the Orthodox doctrine of man, revealing both the antinomy of human nature («pro et contra» in the writer’s terminology) and its previous striving for God, Truth, the need for good, outside of which the person is aware of his non-existence. The dominants of the anthropological ideal of the writer, which are reflected in the works of religious philosophers, are holiness, beauty as the ethical dominant of the person, and reproach in the values and meanings of Christ-centered Russian culture in their foundations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Anca Andriescu Garcia

AbstractDue to his supernatural nature, but also to his place of origin, Bram Stoker’s well-known character, Dracula, is the embodiment of Otherness. He is an image of an alterity that refuses a clear definition and a strict geographical or ontological placement and thus becomes terrifying. This refusal has determined critics from across the spectrum to place the novel in various categories from a psychoanalytical novel to a Gothic one, from a class novel to a postcolonial one, yet the discussion is far from being over. My article aims to examine this multitude of interpretations and investigate their possible convergence. It will also explore the ambivalence or even plurivalence of the character who is situated between the limit of life and death, myth and reality, historical character and demon, stereotype and fear of Otherness and attraction to the intriguing stranger, colonized and colonizer, sensationalism and palpable fin-de-siècle desperation, victim and victimizer, host and parasite, etc. In addition, it will investigate the mythical perspective that results from the confrontation between good and evil, which can be interpreted not only in the postcolonial terms mentioned above, but also in terms of the metatextual narrative technique, which converts into a meditation on how history and myth interact. Finally, it will demonstrate that, instead of being a representation of history, Bram Stoker’s novel represents a masterpiece of intergeneric hybridity that combines, among others, elements of history, myth, folktale and historical novel.1


1994 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-19
Author(s):  
Joe E. Holoubek ◽  
Alice Baker Holoubek
Keyword(s):  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document