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Full-Text Articles in Russian Literature
Nabokov And Bergson: An Influence Of Independence, Susan Leanne Shaevitz
Nabokov And Bergson: An Influence Of Independence, Susan Leanne Shaevitz
English Theses & Dissertations
This thesis investigates the influence Henri Bergson's philosophy had on Vladimir Nabokov's writing. Bergson's major concerns, as espoused in Time and Free Will, Creative Evolution, and Matter and Memory, are recognized in Pale Fire, The Defense, and King, Queen, Knave, as well as in the various reworkings of the novelist's autobiography, Speak, Memory. These texts illustrate a shared concern with issues about time and space, aesthetic experience, instinct and analysis, and the importance of memory. At the heart of all of these matters rests a common concern for both writers--the primacy of lived experience and the necessity of free will. …
Begging The Earth's Forgiveness: Russian Folklore In The Novels Of F. M. Dostoevsky, Wendy Kristine Chia-Klesch
Begging The Earth's Forgiveness: Russian Folklore In The Novels Of F. M. Dostoevsky, Wendy Kristine Chia-Klesch
English Theses & Dissertations
The pervading theme of Dostoevsky's novels is humanity's need to discover meaning in the natural world and in human experience. For generations, the Russian peasantry created myths and folk tales in order to understand the workings of Damp Mother Earth and to endow the earth and their lives with meaning. By the nineteenth century, however, the principles of Western materialism, which Dostoevsky likened to "intelligent bacteria," began to drift across the border and infect the Russian intelligentsia. These new Westernizers devoted themselves to dismantling existing religious and folk traditions and replacing them with a modern sign system based on science …