Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Wyman, Alina
Area of Concentration
Literature
Abstract
In Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics, Mikhail Bakhtin singles out Dostoevsky’s short story “Bobok” as “almost a microcosm of his entire creative output” (144). Following this, Bakhtin writes that the short story “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man” is “practically a complete encyclopedia of Dostoevsky’s most important themes” (150). In this thesis, I argue that these stories present two sides of a contending ideological coin in Dostoevsky: i.e. the idea that “everything is permitted,” which “Bobok” depicts, and the idea of “responsibility for all,” as encapsulated by “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.” Furthermore, I read these stories as concrete and self-contained manifestations of these two ideas, rather than within their context in the great dialogue of Dostoevsky’s novels. In doing so, I utilize Bakhtin’s concepts of polyphony, chronotope and carnival, as well as extended notions of “distance” and “mergence,” to elucidate the microcosmic significance of the ideological coin of “Bobok” and “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.”
Recommended Citation
Pulsifer, Michael, "Dostoevsky and the Problem of Microcosm Bakhtin, “Bobok” and “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”" (2018). Theses & ETDs. 5586.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/5586