Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories

This essay is dedicated to F.M. Dostoevsky’s reception of the Lutheran “Christmas tree”, particularly in the short stories “A Christmas Tree and a Wedding” (1848) and “The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree” (“The Heavenly Christmas Tree”, 1876). Interpreting these stories in the context of...

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Autor principal: Stephan Lipke
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Publicado: Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 2019
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spelling oai:doaj.org-article:16032862da024447bb2eb14f9063f3392021-11-24T10:28:31ZDostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories10.22455/2619-0311-2019-1-116-1262619-03112712-8512https://doaj.org/article/16032862da024447bb2eb14f9063f3392019-03-01T00:00:00Zhttp://dostmirkult.ru/images/DOST_2019-1-int-1-118-128.pdfhttps://doaj.org/toc/2619-0311https://doaj.org/toc/2712-8512This essay is dedicated to F.M. Dostoevsky’s reception of the Lutheran “Christmas tree”, particularly in the short stories “A Christmas Tree and a Wedding” (1848) and “The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree” (“The Heavenly Christmas Tree”, 1876). Interpreting these stories in the context of Christmas, most of all, in the context of the Christmas tree, a tradition without direct ties to the mystery of God’s incarnation, we can see how harshly Dostoevsky criticizes the loss of spiritual values in the upper class of St Petersburg. From his point of view, this leads to an unequal marriage without love and to the beggar boy’s death from cold and hunger. And yet in the 1876 story Dostoevsky juxtaposes to this worldly way of celebrating Christmas the image of “Christ’s Christmas tree” from a poem by the Lutheran F. Rückert. This is a symbol of the Savior’s care for the poorest. Thus, our research shows Dostoevsky’s opinion on the Lutheran tradition of celebrating Christmas around a tree, which was introduced into the Russian culture recently. The writer sees it ambivalently; he sees both the risk of losing the Christian sense of Christmas and the chance of regaining it.Stephan LipkeRussian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literaturearticlef. m. dostoyevsky“a christmas tree and a wedding”a writer’s diarythe beggar boy at christ's christmas treechristmaslutheranismSlavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languagesPG1-9665ENRUДостоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал, Iss 1, Pp 116-126 (2019)
institution DOAJ
collection DOAJ
language EN
RU
topic f. m. dostoyevsky
“a christmas tree and a wedding”
a writer’s diary
the beggar boy at christ's christmas tree
christmas
lutheranism
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
PG1-9665
spellingShingle f. m. dostoyevsky
“a christmas tree and a wedding”
a writer’s diary
the beggar boy at christ's christmas tree
christmas
lutheranism
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
PG1-9665
Stephan Lipke
Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories
description This essay is dedicated to F.M. Dostoevsky’s reception of the Lutheran “Christmas tree”, particularly in the short stories “A Christmas Tree and a Wedding” (1848) and “The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree” (“The Heavenly Christmas Tree”, 1876). Interpreting these stories in the context of Christmas, most of all, in the context of the Christmas tree, a tradition without direct ties to the mystery of God’s incarnation, we can see how harshly Dostoevsky criticizes the loss of spiritual values in the upper class of St Petersburg. From his point of view, this leads to an unequal marriage without love and to the beggar boy’s death from cold and hunger. And yet in the 1876 story Dostoevsky juxtaposes to this worldly way of celebrating Christmas the image of “Christ’s Christmas tree” from a poem by the Lutheran F. Rückert. This is a symbol of the Savior’s care for the poorest. Thus, our research shows Dostoevsky’s opinion on the Lutheran tradition of celebrating Christmas around a tree, which was introduced into the Russian culture recently. The writer sees it ambivalently; he sees both the risk of losing the Christian sense of Christmas and the chance of regaining it.
format article
author Stephan Lipke
author_facet Stephan Lipke
author_sort Stephan Lipke
title Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories
title_short Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories
title_full Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories
title_fullStr Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories
title_full_unstemmed Dostoevsky’s Ambivalent Reception of a Lutheran Tradition: The Christmas Tree and Christmas Party as a Motif in the Writer’s Stories
title_sort dostoevsky’s ambivalent reception of a lutheran tradition: the christmas tree and christmas party as a motif in the writer’s stories
publisher Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature
publishDate 2019
url https://doaj.org/article/16032862da024447bb2eb14f9063f339
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