The Cambridge Companion to Dostoevskii

Key dimensions of Dostoevskii’s writing and life are explored in this collection of specially commissioned essays. While remaining accessible to an undergraduate and non-specialist readership, the essays as a whole seek to renegotiate the terms in which Dostoevskii and his works are to be approached. This is achieved by replacing the conventional ‘life and works’ format by one that seeks instead to foreground key aspects of the cultural context in which those works were produced. Contributors trace the often complex relationship between those aspects and the processes accompanying the creation of Dostoevskii’s art. They examine topics such as Dostoevskii’s relation to folk literature, money, religion, the family and science. The essays are well supported by supplementary material including a chronology of the period and detailed guides to further reading. Altogether the volume provides an invaluable resource for scholars and students.

Robert L. Belknap has been teaching Russian literature at Columbia University since the 1950s Boris Christa was for twenty-five years Professor and Head of the Department of Russian at the University of Queensland Susanne Fusso is Associate Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Wesleyan University, Connecticut Malcolm V. Jones is Emeritus Professor of Russian at the University of Nottingham William Leatherbarrow is Professor of Russian at the University of Sheffield Gary Saul Morson is Frances Hooper Professor of the Arts and Humanities at Northwestern University Derek Offord is Professor of Russian Intellectual History and Head of the Department of Russian Studies at the University of Bristol Diane Oenning Thompson is an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge William Mills Todd, III is Professor of Russian at Harvard University Faith Wigzell is Reader in Russian at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London