Wages of Evil

Dostoevsky and Punishment
Erscheinungsjahr 2022
ISBN: 978-0-8101-4448-4
Verlag: Northwestern University Press

Buch, Englisch, 256 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Reihe: Studies in Russian Literature and Theory

Dostoevsky’s views on punishment are usually examined through the prism of his Christian commitments. For some, this means an orientation toward mercy; for others, an affirmation of suffering as a path to redemption. Anna Schur incorporates sources from philosophy, criminology, psychology, and history to argue that Dostoevsky’s thinking about punishment was shaped not only by his Christian ethics but also by the debates on penal theory and practice unfolding during his lifetime.
 
As Dostoevsky attempts to balance the various ethical and cultural imperatives, he displays ambivalence both about punishment and about mercy. This ambivalence, Schur argues, is further complicated by what Dostoevsky sees as the unfathomable quality of the self, which hinders every attempt to match crimes with punishments. The one certainty he holds is that a proper response to wrongdoing must include a concern for the wrongdoer’s moral improvement.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Scaffold and the Rod: Dostoevsky on the Death Penalty and Corporal Punishment
- Chapter 2: "Squaring the Circle": The Justice of Punishment
- Chapter 3: Foregoing Punishment: Dostoevsky’s Third Category and the Case of Ekaterina Kornilova
- Chapter 4: "A Mummy" or a "Resurrected" Self?
- Chapter 5: "India Rubber," the "Living Soul," and the Process of Moral Change
- Chapter 6: Approximations of Justice: The Novel in the Courtroom
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

ANNA SCHUR is a professor of English at Keene State College in New Hampshire.