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Notes from Underground

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'one of the most influential pieces of fiction in Western European history' (Brians) ... blend of a 'profound self-contempt with an exquisitely sensitive ego' (Brians) ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Notes from Underground


1
Notes from Underground
  • Fyodor Dostoevsky

2
(No Transcript)
3
Freedom and Thinking
  • Nothing is more seductive for man tha n his
    freedom of conscience. But nothing is a greater
    cause of suffering.
  • Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
  • consciousness is a disease, a real, actual
    disease -- NFU

4
  • one of the most influential pieces of fiction in
    Western European history (Brians)

5
  • Dostoevskys Great Question
  • What explains us?
  • Dostoevsky had been an idealist/Romantic as a
    young man.
  • Later, he abandoned these notions.

6
Challenges
  • UM himself unpleasant, spiteful, bitter,
    annoying yet it is difficult to disagree with
    his ideas. A representative figure a
    collective personage who positively must
    exist. How is he representative of us?
  • Structure. Fragmentary notes. No plot in the
    first part.
  • Philosophy UM attacks the very foundations of
    our sense of whats important in life.

7
Themes
  • Attack on Victorian rationalism, progress, the
    idea that reason/science can eliminate suffering
    and bring about a perfect world.
  • Man as irrational, contradictory we are
    simultaneously capable of the most noble actions
    as well as the most barbaric.
  • Self-interest. Enlightened and real.

8
  • The influence of traumatic childhood events on
    adult actions.
  • The modern/post-modern blend of a profound
    self-contempt with an exquisitely sensitive ego
    (Brians).
  • The corrosive effect of anger and powerlessness.

9
Concepts in the Novel
  • the underground
  • Consciousness A disease
  • man of action
  • hero
  • insect
  • beautiful and sublime

10
  • laws of nature
  • wall
  • tables
  • organ stops
  • 2 x 2 4 or 5
  • free will

11
  • self-interest
  • crystal palace
  • inertia
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