Russia in the 19th-Century - Valdosta State University

Dostoevsky: Notes from
Underground

Dr. Theresa Thompson
English 2130
Fall 2009

Russia in the 19th-Century

Tsar had absolute power.

Head of the Army, used to crush rebellions.
Head of the Russian Orthodox Church

Total Censorship
Political Oppression

No political parties were allowed.
Secret Police

 Serfdom

Property of nobles or Tsar. Owed their labor in
exchange for land.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

 Prison
 "Life is in ourselves and

not in the external.”
 “To be a human being

among human beings, and
remain one forever, no
matter what misfortunes
befall, not to become
depressed, and not to falter--
this is what life is, herein
lies its task."

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Some terms

 Natural Laws
 Epistemology:

 The theory of knowledge that answers such questions as: What is
knowledge? What, if anything, can we know? What is the difference
between opinion and knowledge?

 Empiricism:

 The epistemological view that true knowledge is derived primarily
from sense experience. All significant knowledge is a posteriori.

 Rationalism:

 The epistemological view that true knowledge is derived primarily
from reason. Reason is conceived as the working of the mind on
material provided by the mind itself.

 Satire:

 diminishing or deriding a subject by making it ridiculous & evoking
toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation.

Some more terms

A priori:

The falsity or truth of a claim can be known independently of
observation. (Rationalism)

A posteriori:

Truth or falsity of a claim can be known only by appealing to
observation. (Empiricism)

 Mysticism:

The view that a special experience can be achieved which
transcends ordinary rational procedures & provides a direct
intuition of the presence of God or an extrarational insight into
ultimate truth. (top of 1311)

Metaphor of the
“underground”

Our unnamed hero is emblematic of
many “underground men”: hidden /
locked-in or locked out existence (1311-
1312, 1327, 1376)

Hidden threat to social order (1321,
1326, 1379)

Existing threat IN the social order
(1362- 1363)

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Underground Man’s
Psychological Profile

UM’s contradictory impulses / sado-
masochism (1308, 1332, 1343-4, 1366-7,
1374)

Self-contempt / fragile ego (1314, 1330,
1346, 1361)

Education & UM’s childhood experiences /
(1339, 1340, 1350)

Anti-heroic (1334, 1349, 1357-1358, 1364)

Natural Laws

Hobbes: The mechanical universe

The workings of the mind, and the emotions can
be explained in terms of motion.

The whole of civil society is mechanically
determined by the mechanically-determined
individuals within it.

State of nature: violent w/o social contract

John Locke: Hobbes is wrong.

“Man is free and in this condition all men are
equal.”

State of nature: condition of abundance equally
shared. (NFM 1317-1318)

Notes from Underground and 19th-c. Satire

Satirizes the “confession” form. (1307, 1375)
Questions Rousseau’s Confession (1328)

Satirizes the Romantic Hero (1314, 1329)
Satirizes rationalism. (1315, 1323, 1376)
Satirizes empiricism & progress. (1318, 1324,

1325)
Satirizes romantics & sentimentality. (1331,

1373)
Satirizes ideas of natural laws. (1310, 1313,

1320-21)

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