Dostoevsky was an Anti-Semite Essay -- Biography Biographies Essays

Dostoevsky was an Anti-SemiteLiterary antisemitism is as old as Western culture itself. A blanket(a) listing of writers who have expressed aggressiveness toward Jews and/or Judaism--from Shakespeare to T.S. Eliot, from Pushkin to Pasternak, etc.--would add up to a Whos Who of Western literature.1 Undoubtedly, Dostoevsky follows in this tradition. It is disparaging, however, that as the true novelist of ideas and Christian love, Dostoevsky could arrest such ill will towards the Jews. Does this not discredit everything he has create verbally? This account will address Dostoevskys anti-Semitism through an examination of Isay Fomitch Bumstein in The House of the Dead, the Messianic idea in The Devils, and the little demon in The Brothers Karamazov. Furthermore, this paper will question the moral implications of Dostoevskys Christian message given his antisemitic posture. It will suggest that while he was indeed an anti-Semite, one stack continue to read Dostoevskys work without fe eling that his message was a pick up sham.2Until The House of the Dead, Jews were practically absent from Dostoevskys writings.3 But beginning with this book in 1862, the Jew and the Jewish question assume a place of growing magnificence in Dostoevskys thought. The eight years of military and penal servitude in Siberia erupt Dostoevsky to both criminals and Jews alike. Unlike Gogol, who in his native Ukraine had observed graduation exercisehand the hostility between the Ukrainians and Jews, Dostoevsky did not have any direct experience with Jews, because at that place were few Jews living in St. Petersburg.4 It is in the House of the Dead that Dostoevsky, for the first time, depicts a Jewish character Isay Fomitch Bumstein (IV, 61). Dostoevsky pays considerable attention to ... ...id., pg. 30.8 Goldstein, pg. 50.9 Ibid., pg. 55.10 Ibid, pg. 50.11 Goldstein, pg. 56.12 Ibid., pg. 51.13 Goldstein, pg. 155.14 Goldstein, pg. 156.15 Joseph Frank, xi.16 David Singer, pg. 21.17 Joseph Frank, xii.18 Ibid., pg. xiv.Bibliography1. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The Brothers Karamazov. The Garnnet Translation, revised by Ralph E. Matlaw. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. 1976.2.Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Devils. New variant by Michael R. Katz. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 1992.3. Dostoevsky, Fyodor, The House of the Dead. The Garnet Translation. The MacMillan Company, New York, 1950.4. Goldstein, David I. Dostoevsky and the Jews, with forward by Joseph Frank. University of Texas Press, Austin. 1981.5. Singer, David, An Anti-Semitic Genius. contain Review in The New Leader. May 18, 1991, volume 64.