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SUMMARY:Dostoevsky's Gothic Blueprint: the Notebooks to The Idiot - Dr Kat
 herine Bowers (University of Cambridge)
DTSTART:20140513T121000Z
DTEND:20140513T130000Z
UID:TALK52145@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Katherine Bowers
DESCRIPTION:Many scholars have commented on the influence of English gothi
 c fiction on Dostoevsky’s writing. And\, indeed\, Dostoevsky himself rec
 alls his early love of gothic novels\, especially those of English gothic 
 novelist par excellence\, Ann Radcliffe\, in Winter Notes on Summer Impres
 sions (1863): “I used to spend the long winter hours before bed listenin
 g (for I could not yet read)\, agape with ecstasy and terror\, as my paren
 ts read aloud to me from the novels of Ann Radcliffe. Then I would rave de
 liriously about them in my sleep." This talk examines the specific impact 
 of Radcliffe’s novels\, especially The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)\, on 
 Dostoevsky’s The Idiot (1868). Looking\, in particular\, at the trajecto
 ry of Nastas'ia Filippovna's development as a character\, as well as Dosto
 evsky’s working notebooks for the novel\, the paper shows the extent to 
 which the Russian writer used Radcliffe’s text in the formulation and st
 ructure of his novel. Dostoevsky’s early reading of English gothic novel
 s clearly proved significant in the development of his narrative craft\, a
 s seen when we examine The Idiot and its working notebooks with Radcliffe
 ’s works in mind.
LOCATION:The Richard King Room\, Darwin College
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