THE OEUVRE OF F. M. DOSTOEVSKY IN CRITICAL AND PUBLICISTIC WRITING OF A. BENNETT
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2019-6-38-46
Inroduction. Despite numerous publications on the early reception of F.M. Dostoevsky’s work in Great Britain, the scientific literature covers some important facts for understanding the peculiarities of the phenomenon only partially. Among them are the critical responses of the English writer Arnold Bennett pre-echoing the “Dostoevsky cult” in Great Britain. The aim is to elicit the peculiarities of Dostoevsky’s work reception by Bennett in 1910s and to identify the role of the latter in forming the tendencies of the writer’s legacy apprehension in the English culture. Material and methods. Material of the research includes three Bennett’s articles about Dostoevsky, published in The New Age weekly in 1910–1911. The methods comprise cultural-historical, literal-historical and comparative analysis. Results and discussion. In general, A. Bennett in his interpretation of Dostoevsky’s work follows the line of his predecessors. For example, he regards the form of the author’s works as a drawback; while his younger contemporaries will discover its novelty and meaning-making function in the text. Herewith, he rethinks some aspects of the traditional interpretation and calls The Karamazov Brothers, previously underestimated by the critics, an outstanding work. Bennett is not prepared for the deep understanding of the Dostoevsky’s work, but his interest in the author’s legacy, persistent urge to publish the translations play important role in popularizing his books in Great Britain. As a result, Dostoevsky’s novels become a matter of discussions among the young English writers and become available for the common readers. Conclusion. Bennet’s articles about the Russian author make a representative material in terms of learning the critic’s personal reception and in terms of identifying the typical features of the reception of 1910s. They form preconditions for the development of the so-called “Dostoevsky cult”.
Keywords: A. Bennett, F. M. Dostoevsky. M. Baring, G. L. Strachey, V. Woolf, reception, English modernism
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Issue: 6, 2019
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: TOPICAL ISSUES OF LITERARY CRITICISM
Pages: 38 — 46
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