Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology

The article considers the image of America in Dostoevsky’s artistic philosophy. It gives a brief overview of existing research, including literary, political, and mythological aspects of the American topos in Dostoevsky. The article focuses on the philosophical and religious significance of America...

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Autor principal:	Tatyana V. Kovalevskaya
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN RU
Publicado:	Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature 2020
Materias:	protestantism puritanism calvinism harriet beecher stowe oldtown folks alexander pushkin “john tanner ” the elect predestination the devils Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/fa3d6d4ec2114337b3711e761294dfab
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:fa3d6d4ec2114337b3711e761294dfab2021-12-02T19:45:50ZFyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology10.22455/2619-0311-2020-2-61-942619-03112712-8512https://doaj.org/article/fa3d6d4ec2114337b3711e761294dfab2020-06-01T00:00:00Zhttp://dostmirkult.ru/images/2020-2/DOST_2020-210-intern-pagine-63-96.pdfhttps://doaj.org/toc/2619-0311https://doaj.org/toc/2712-8512The article considers the image of America in Dostoevsky’s artistic philosophy. It gives a brief overview of existing research, including literary, political, and mythological aspects of the American topos in Dostoevsky. The article focuses on the philosophical and religious significance of America viewed as the product of two seemingly contradictory impulses. One is the Enlightenment concept of an ideal state (Alexander Pushkin in his article “John Tanner” writes about the failure of this utopian perception of America) and the second is Protestantism in its radical Puritan form (Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Oldtown Folks treats the issues of Puritans’ religious life; its Russian translation was published in the Zarya journal when Dostoevsky worked on The Devils). As the product of essentially anti-Christian, deistic philosophy of the Enlightenment (“Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion” by Thomas Paine, an English corset-maker and one of the ideological fathers of the American revolution, is particularly telling in this regard), America could already appear to Dostoevsky as a man-made dystopia. Puritans viewed themselves as the ancient Israel, the elect, God’s chosen people. Consequently, in full logical accord with the ideas of Rousseau in The Social Contract that theocracy means representing the national character of a people in the image of a god, America creates a religion of itself as a god. America must be believed in. In this capacity, America embodies Shatov’s idea of a god being the synthetic personality of the people that excludes all other gods irreconcilably. America thus becomes Russia’s religious and political opposite as America exemplifies what happens when God is reduced an attribute of nationality as opposed to keeping the true image of God in people’s soul as Dostoevsky viewed the mission of a God-bearing people.Tatyana V. KovalevskayaRussian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literaturearticleprotestantismpuritanismcalvinismharriet beecher stoweoldtown folksalexander pushkin“john tanner” the electpredestinationthe devilsSlavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languagesPG1-9665ENRUДостоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал, Iss 2, Pp 61-94 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN RU
topic	protestantism puritanism calvinism harriet beecher stowe oldtown folks alexander pushkin “john tanner ” the elect predestination the devils Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665
spellingShingle	protestantism puritanism calvinism harriet beecher stowe oldtown folks alexander pushkin “john tanner ” the elect predestination the devils Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages PG1-9665 Tatyana V. Kovalevskaya Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology
description	The article considers the image of America in Dostoevsky’s artistic philosophy. It gives a brief overview of existing research, including literary, political, and mythological aspects of the American topos in Dostoevsky. The article focuses on the philosophical and religious significance of America viewed as the product of two seemingly contradictory impulses. One is the Enlightenment concept of an ideal state (Alexander Pushkin in his article “John Tanner” writes about the failure of this utopian perception of America) and the second is Protestantism in its radical Puritan form (Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel Oldtown Folks treats the issues of Puritans’ religious life; its Russian translation was published in the Zarya journal when Dostoevsky worked on The Devils). As the product of essentially anti-Christian, deistic philosophy of the Enlightenment (“Of the Religion of Deism Compared with the Christian Religion” by Thomas Paine, an English corset-maker and one of the ideological fathers of the American revolution, is particularly telling in this regard), America could already appear to Dostoevsky as a man-made dystopia. Puritans viewed themselves as the ancient Israel, the elect, God’s chosen people. Consequently, in full logical accord with the ideas of Rousseau in The Social Contract that theocracy means representing the national character of a people in the image of a god, America creates a religion of itself as a god. America must be believed in. In this capacity, America embodies Shatov’s idea of a god being the synthetic personality of the people that excludes all other gods irreconcilably. America thus becomes Russia’s religious and political opposite as America exemplifies what happens when God is reduced an attribute of nationality as opposed to keeping the true image of God in people’s soul as Dostoevsky viewed the mission of a God-bearing people.
format	article
author	Tatyana V. Kovalevskaya
author_facet	Tatyana V. Kovalevskaya
author_sort	Tatyana V. Kovalevskaya
title	Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology
title_short	Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology
title_full	Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology
title_fullStr	Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology
title_full_unstemmed	Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology
title_sort	fyodor dostoevsky and america: harriet beecher stowe’s oldtown folks and issues of calvinist theology
publisher	Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/fa3d6d4ec2114337b3711e761294dfab
work_keys_str_mv	AT tatyanavkovalevskaya fyodordostoevskyandamericaharrietbeecherstowesoldtownfolksandissuesofcalvinisttheology
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Fyodor Dostoevsky and America: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Oldtown Folks and Issues of Calvinist Theology

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