Dostoyevsky’s Critique of the West: The Quest for the Earthly Paradise

217 Pages·1982·12.187 MB·English

by  Bruce K. Ward

DOSTOYEVSKY'S CRITIQUE
OF THE WEST
THE QUEST FOR THE EARTHLY
PARADISE
BRUCE K. WARD
While most commentators reflect on the spiritual side of
Dostoyevsky's writings, not as much attention has been
given to his concern with the crisis of the modern West. His
allusions to almost every aspect of Western civilization—
including the political, economic, and social dimen-
sions—are present in his literary works and abound in his
secondary writings.
This book points the way to a proper understanding of
the apparent contradiction between Dostoyevsky's concern
with the highest reaches of human spirituality and at the
same time with the most detailed developments in domestic
and international politics. It posits that the apparent polari-
zation of "religious" thought and "political" analysis of
the West are held together for Dostoyevsky in his search for
the best human order. Ward demonstratesnot only that Dos-
the best human order. Ward demonstrates not only that Dos-toyevsky'sobservations about the West constitute a coher-
ent critique intimately related to the deepest aspects of his
thought, but also that these can be rendered more systematic
and explicit and thus more accessible to those who are in-
terested.
What results is an incisive and intriguing account of
both the religious and the political thought of Dostoyevsky.
It also fulfills the purpose of helping to clarify what Dos-
toyevsky can teach us about the modern situation of the
Western world and about the problem of human order in
general, for, as the author states, "it was Dostoyevsky's
great virtue as a thinker always to see the pressing issues of
his particular time and place in the light of the 'everlasting'
problems."
Bruce K. Ward teaches in the Department of Religious
Studies at Thorneloe College of Laurentian University,
Sudbury, Ontario.
This page intentionally left blank
DOSTOYEVSKVS
CRITIQUE
OF THE WEST
The Quest for the
Earthly Paradise
Bruce K. Ward
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Ward, Bruce Kinsey.
Dostoyevsky's critique of the West
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-88920-190-0
1. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor, 1821-1881 - Criticism
and interpretation. I. Title.
PG3328.W37 1986 891.73'3 C86-094610-X
Copyright © 1986
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
86 87 88 89 4 3 2 I
Cover design by David Antscherl
Printed in Canada
No pan of this book may be stored in a retrieval system, translated or reproduced in
any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without
written permission from the publisher.
for
Norma
This page intentionally left blank
II ne nous reste plus d'ailleurs qu'a renaitre ou a mourir.
—Albert Camus, L'Homme revolte
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
NOTES ON TRANSLATION, TRANSLITERATION, AND
REFERENCES xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
ONE RUSSIAN WESTERNISM: ITS HISTORICAL
DEVELOPMENT 9
The Early History of Russian Westernism 9
Dostoyevsky and the Russian Westernism of the
1830s and 1840s 15
Russian Romanticism 15
The Influence of "Furious Vissarion 19
TWO THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF THE
"GREAT IDEA" OF ORDER 35
Uprootedness and Human Order 35
The ' 'Great Idea": The Westernism of the 1840s 41
The Geneva Idea: Freedom 46
The Geneva Idea: Equality and Brotherhood 47
Further Development of the "Great Idea":
The Westernism of the 1860s 51
From the Critique of Russian Westernism to the
Critique of the West 59
THREE THE "GREAT IDEA" IN THE MODERN WEST 63
The Breakdown of Traditional Western Order 63
The New Order and the Western Peoples 67
France 67
The English-Speaking World: England and
the United States 76
Germany 80
ix