Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov

It is not an exaggeration to say The Brothers Karamazov is one of the most influential novels ever written. It is a novel that has a history of dividing opinions, regularly hitting banned book lists: Written in the mid-late 19th century, contemporary Christians believed the novel was atheistic, and contemporary atheists believed the novel is too Christian. Regardless of which it is, the novel is certainly an attempt to tear down established norms and create a blueprint for a new societal order in Russia. Dostoevsky himself spent time in a labor camp earlier in his life, accused of various crimes including fears from the Ministry of Internal Affairs that he was a member of a revolutionary literary group. If Tolstoy’s War and Peace, written a decade earlier, was an attempt to capture the totality of political and interpersonal life, then The Brothers Karamazov is an attempt to capture the totality of internal life. It is a project with no less of a goal than creating a new society and new religion through the demonstration of the tripartite souls of the titular brothers: Aloysha, the exuberant, youthful monk-in-training; Ivan, the depressed, ruminating academic, and Dimitri, the eldest, sensualist, and self-destructive soldier. Each character represents a period of life and a way of looking at the world; though archetypes, they also feel like people you may have known. When their miserable and cruel estranged father is murdered, all three have to face his self-destructive aspects in themselves: Why are modern humans miserable when we know we could be happy, and why can’t we seem to get out of our own way? And who among Fyodor Zaramazov’s orbit killed him, and why? We will be reading the Peaver and Volokhonsky translation, itself a major turning point in the novel’s popularity in English, shedding some of the stuffy, plodding, confusing language of earlier translations in favor a readable and populist style. The Brothers Karamazov is a big novel full of big ideas, and there is no better way to experience it than in a group. Required Texts: The Brothers Karamazov, Bicentennial Edition, trans. Peaver and Volokhonsky Reading schedule: Week 1: 1-173 (Part I) Week 2: 173-300 (Part II, Books 4-5) Week 3: 300-472 (Part II, Book 6 – Part III, Books 7-8) Week 4: 472- 545 (Part III, Book 9) Week 5: 545- 696 (Part IV, Books 10-11) Week 6: 696-825 (Part IV Book 12 & Epilogue) Access Program We want our writing classes and seminars to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class and seminar tuitions at a reduced rate. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at [email protected] if you have questions. Liaison position Every in-person class and seminar at Literary Arts has one liaison position. Liaisons perform specific duties for each class meeting. If you are a liaison for a class or seminar, the full amount of your tuition is covered by Literary Arts. Apply here for the liaison position.