Fyodor Mihaylovich Dostoevskiy

Japanese: ドストエフスキー - どすとえふすきー（英語表記）Фёдор　Михайлович　Достоевский／Fyodor Mihaylovich Dostoevskiy

A Russian novelist. Along with Tolstoy, he is a world-renowned master of 19th century Russian literature. He explored the inner world of human beings with a unique method known as "realism of the soul," which opened up new possibilities in modern novels. In a Russia in transition where the old serfdom order was being replaced by capitalist relations, he was torn apart by the contradictions of the times, but his literature, which was able to fully immerse himself in the world of his works, stands out for its extraordinary relevance to the present day and has had a profound impact on 20th century thought and literature.

[Takashi Egawa]

Early life

Born on October 30, 1821 (November 11, Gregorian calendar) as the second son of a doctor at the Maria Poor Hospital in Moscow, he grew up with an educated but moody father and a mother who was from a merchant family and a devout Christian. He had many opportunities to be familiar with urban environments from an early age, which determined his appearance as a pioneer of Russian urban literature. On the other hand, when he was 10 years old, his father acquired a village in Tula Province with six serfs, and his childhood experiences there formed the basis for his tendency to idealize peasants, as seen in the short work "Malay the Peasant" (1876), and his later advocacy of "soilism" (Russian messianism). At the age of 18, his father incurred the wrath of the serfs of the village and was brutally murdered, which is thought to have had a deep impact on the author, leading to the theme of patricide in his last novel, "The Brothers Karamazov."

[Takashi Egawa]

The emergence of a new Gogol

After studying at a private school in Moscow, he entered the Military Engineering Academy in St. Petersburg (Leningrad in the Soviet era) at the age of 17, where he devoured Russian literature, including Pushkin and Gogol, Western classics, and contemporary writers, and was particularly fascinated by Schiller. After graduating, he worked at an engineering factory, but he was bored with the job "like a potato" and quit after about a year. Encouraged by the positive reviews of Balzac's "Eugénie Grandet," which he happened to translate, he decided to become a professional writer and wrote his debut work, "Poor People" (1845). This novella, which depicts the social tragedy of the "little people" of the city's backstreets, the brilliance of humanity hidden within them, and the psychological conflicts that lie within them, was recognized by Belinsky, a leading critic of the time who advocated realistic humanism, and brought the 24-year-old unknown writer instant fame as the "new Gogol." His subsequent works, such as "The Double" (1846), "Mr. Prokhalchin" (1846), and "Housewife" (1847), were criticized by Belinsky and others for their pathological tendency toward psychologicalism, but even in these works we can see the prototypes of the themes, ideas, and methods that would become great writers in his later years. In particular, his unique sense of parody and strong interest in style, which can be seen in his early works, are worthy of note.

[Takashi Egawa]

Death experiences and exile

Around the time of his falling out with Belinsky, he began to show interest in utopian socialist ideas, and while he explored various aspects of human passion in such masterpieces as "White Nights" (1848) and "Netochka Nezvanova" (1849), he also became close to Petrashevsky's circle, which worshipped the ideas of Fourier. His interactions with revolutionary young people during this period would leave a deep mark on his creative writing throughout his life. In the spring of 1849, he was arrested along with other members of his circle, and sentenced to death at the end of the same year, but just before he was to be shot at the Semenovsky Parade Ground, he was granted an "Imperial pardon" and his sentence was commuted to imprisonment. The extraordinary experience of coming face to face with death at this time was vividly described in "The Idiot" and "Crime and Punishment" later. The next four years he spent in the Omsk prison in Siberia were a time when he discovered the Russian people among the unfortunate prisoners, and also when he became more inclined toward Slavic mysticism and the ideas of suffering and submission. They are also remembered as the period of his ideological transformation, the so-called "reformation of beliefs." On his way to Siberia, he received a Russian translation of the New Testament from the wives of the Decembrists in Tobolsk, and it became his lifelong favorite book. After his release from prison, he served as a soldier in Semipalatinsk in Central Asia for five years, during which time he married Maria Isaeva, a widow of a tax official, and published darkly humorous psychological novels such as "Uncle's Dream" (1859) and "The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants" (1859). At the end of 1859, he was allowed to return to the capital, St. Petersburg, for the first time in ten years, and in the midst of the euphoric social atmosphere preceding the emancipation of the serfs, he founded the magazine Bremya (1861-63) with his brother Mikhail, and while writing about current affairs and literary theory, he published a unique work based on his experiences in a Siberian prison, Notes from the House of the Dead (1861-62), and the full-length novel The Insulted (1861). Set against the demonic backdrop of Prince Valkovsky, who could be considered the predecessor of Svidrigailov in Crime and Punishment, this novel unfolds in a melodramatic way the entangled forms of love between weak, well-intentioned people, and is framed by the death of the prince's illegitimate child, the beautiful and strangely attractive Nelly.

[Takashi Egawa]

European travel and gambling

The next few years were marked by political backlash and social disillusionment after the emancipation of the serfs, as well as by the great events in his personal life, such as his first trip to Western Europe in 1862 (his impressions are described in "A Tale of Summer and Winter" in 1863), his unusual love affair with his mistress Suslova (part of which is described in "The Gambler"), and the deaths of his wife and brother in 1864. It is no coincidence that the novella "Notes from the Underground" (1864), which is generally considered to be a turning point in his literary career and the key to unlocking his later masterpieces, was written during this period. His personal life was unstable due to the financial failure of the magazine "Epoch", which was published after the closure of "The Epoch". In 1867, he remarried Anna Snitkina, a shorthand writer whom he met while dictating his novella "The Gambler" (1866), and then spent four years abroad to avoid being pursued by his debtors. It is amazing that, despite the pressures of his life, which was constantly plagued by his chronic illness of epilepsy and made worse by his gambling habit, he was able to produce a succession of works that have made his name immortal, such as the masterpieces "Crime and Punishment" (1866), "The Idiot" (1868), and "Demons" (1871-72), as well as the novella "The Everlasting Husband" (1870).

[Takashi Egawa]

Mature years

In the last ten years of his life, after returning from his overseas trips and enjoying a relatively calm life, he wrote the long novel The Adolescent (1875) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80), which could be said to be the culmination of his lifelong thoughts. In addition, from 1876 he published a personal magazine, The Writer's Diary, in which he published not only current essays and literary critiques, but also unique novellas such as The Gentle Woman (1876) and The Dream of a Crazy Man (1877). The Pushkin Memorial Lectures, which he delivered about six months before his death, were enthusiastically welcomed by both the Slavophile and the Westernists, and added a flourish to his unfortunate later years. He died of a pulmonary artery rupture on January 28, 1881 (February 9 in the Gregorian calendar).

[Takashi Egawa]

The development of the Dostoevsky world

His later masterpieces are characterized by their ability to respond sensitively to cutting-edge social, ideological, and political issues of the time, as well as to the state of culture and science, while at the same time raising fundamental questions about human existence. Particularly noteworthy are his works that, although they deal with different subjects, such as "Crime and Punishment," which explores humanity in the theoretical murderer Raskolnikov, "The Idiot," which depicts the defeat of Prince Myshkin, the "beautiful man" who should bring harmony and reconciliation, "Demons," which exposes the pathology of revolutionary ideology and organization, "The Adolescent," which deals with the biology of youth ambition, and "The Brothers Karamazov," which tackles the issue of God and humanity head-on with the theme of patricide, they are strongly connected by an internal unity as a whole. Here, one can sense the presence of a mythological and folkloric worldview that transcends the subject matter, and it is in this sense that the term "Dostoevsky's world" is spoken of. One example is the polar opposite characters of Sonya and Svidrigailov in "Crime and Punishment," who are inherited by Myshkin in "The Idiot" and Stavrogin in "Demons," and who further develop into the confrontation between Zosima and Ivan in "The Brothers Karamazov." The characters in his works, along with the author himself, seem to embody the conflict between "affirmation and negation" that all living beings in this world must inevitably bear. Dostoevsky's genius lies in his ability to reproduce the vividness of this conflict in the form of the so-called "polyphonic romance."

[Takashi Egawa]

Constant reevaluation and influence

Dostoevsky's influence on literature and thought, not only in Russia but also around the world, is extremely wide-ranging, but what is particularly noteworthy is that his literature has been constantly "rediscovered" over the years. In Russia from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the philosophical and religious meanings of his works were elucidated by Merezhkovsky, Rozanov, Shestov, Volynsky, Ivanov, Berdyaev and others, and these were passed on to the lineage of existentialist thought from Nietzsche to Camus and Sartre. On the other hand, Russian Formalism in the 1920s, and especially Bakhtin's discovery of the principles of "polyphony" and "carnival" in Dostoevsky's works, were reevaluated with the rise of the structuralist trend in thought in the 1960s, and have had a major impact on modern semiotic understanding of literature. In the Soviet Union, during the Stalin era, Dostoevsky was virtually banned for a time, but since the late 1950s research has flourished, and the most complete academic edition of 30 volumes of his works was published in 1972. In Japan, since Uchida Roan translated Crime and Punishment in 1892-93 (Meiji 25-26), up to the personal translations of the complete works by Yonekawa Masao and Konuma Fumihiko after World War II, there have been nearly 10 translations of his major works, making Dostoevsky the most widely read author in the world. It is easy to see his influence on Hasegawa Futabatei, Kitamura Tokoku, and Shimazaki Toson of the Meiji period, and on the Shirakaba School writers of the Taisho period, such as Hagiwara Sakutaro and Akutagawa Ryunosuke, and after Shestov's "Philosophy of Anxiety" became popular in the 1930s, Kobayashi Hideo, Haniya Yutaka and others developed their own unique views of Dostoevsky. After the war, it can be said that the literature of the so-called first postwar generation was greatly influenced by Dostoevsky.

[Takashi Egawa]

"The Complete Works of Dostoevsky, translated by Yonekawa Masao, 20 volumes (1969-74, Kawade Shobo Shinsha)" ▽ "The Complete Works of Dostoevsky, translated by Konuma Fumihiko, 20 volumes and 1 supplementary volume (1963-91, Chikumashobo)" ▽ "The Complete Works of Dostoevsky, 27 volumes and 1 supplementary volume (1978-80, Shinchosha)" ▽ "The Life of Dostoevsky, by H. Troyat, translated by Murakami Kazumiko (1982, Chuokoron-Shinsha)" ▽ "The Complete Works of Dostoevsky, by Kobayashi Hideo (1981, Kodansha)" ▽ "The Complete Works of Dostoevsky, by Haniya Yukio (1979, Kodansha)" ▽ "Dostoevsky, by Egawa Takashi (Iwanami Shinsho)" ▽ "Dostoevsky: The Sense of Life and Death" by Nakamura Kennosuke (1984, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "Dostoevsky and Women" by Nakamura Kennosuke (1984, Kodansha)" ▽ "Dostoevsky Notes: The World of 'Crime and Punishment'" by Shimizu Takazumi (1996, Kyushu University Press)" ▽ "Dostoevsky Thoughts" by Konuma Fumihiko (1997, Kindai Bungeisha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

ロシアの小説家。トルストイと並んで19世紀ロシア文学を代表する世界的巨匠。「魂のリアリズム」とよばれる独自の方法で人間の内面を追求、近代小説に新しい可能性を開いた。農奴制的旧秩序が資本主義的関係にとってかわられようとする過渡期のロシアで、自身が時代の矛盾に引き裂かれながら、その引き裂かれる自己を全的に作品世界に投入しえた彼の文学は、異常なほどの今日性をもって際だっており、20世紀の思想・文学に深刻な影響を与えている。

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生い立ち

1821年10月30日（新暦11月11日）モスクワのマリヤ貧民救済病院の医師の次男に生まれ、教育熱心だが気むずかしい父と、商家の出身で敬虔(けいけん)なキリスト教徒であった母のもとで育った。幼時から都会的環境に親しむ機会が多く、このことはロシアの都市文学の先駆者としての彼の風貌(ふうぼう)を決定づけた。反面、彼が10歳のとき父がトゥーラ県に農奴6人の持村を手に入れ、そこでの幼時体験は、小品『百姓マレイ』（1876）にみられるような農民理想化の傾向、後年の「土壌主義」（ロシア・メシアニズム）の主張の素地を形づくることになる。18歳のときには、父がこの持村の農奴の恨みを買って惨殺される事件もあり、これは最後の長編『カラマーゾフの兄弟』の父親殺しの主題にまでつながる深刻な衝撃を作家に与えたとみられている。

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新しいゴーゴリの登場

モスクワの私塾で学んだのち、17歳でペテルブルグ（ソ連時代のレニングラード）の工兵士官学校に入るが、学生時代はプーシキン、ゴーゴリをはじめとするロシア文学、西欧の古典、現代作家の作品を耽読(たんどく)し、とくにシラーに熱中した。卒業後は工兵廠(しょう)に勤めるが、勤務には「ジャガイモのように」飽き飽きして1年ほどで退職、たまたま翻訳したバルザックの『ウージェニー・グランデ』の好評に力を得て職業作家を志し、処女作『貧しき人々』（1845）を書き上げた。都会の裏町の「小さな人間たち」の社会的悲劇、彼らのなかに潜む人間性の輝き、心理的相克を描き出したこの中編は、写実的ヒューマニズムを掲げていた当時の批評界の大立て者ベリンスキーに認められ、24歳の無名作家に一躍「新しいゴーゴリ」の名声をもたらした。続いて発表した『分身』（1846）、『プロハルチン氏』（1846）、『主婦』（1847）などは、ベリンスキーらから心理主義への病的な傾斜を指摘されて不評に終わったが、これらの作品にもすでに後年の大作家に固有のテーマ、思想、方法などの原型がみてとれる。とりわけ初期作品を通じてみられる独自のパロディー感覚、文体への強い関心などは注目に値する。

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死の体験と流刑

ベリンスキーとの不和と前後して、空想的社会主義思想への関心をみせ始め、『白夜』（1848）、『ネートチカ・ネズワーノワ』（1849）などの佳編で人間情熱の諸相を探る一方、フーリエの思想を奉ずるペトラシェフスキーのサークルに接近していった。この時期の革命的青年たちとの交流は、生涯にわたって彼の創作に大きな痕跡(こんせき)を残すことになる。1849年春、彼は他のサークル員とともに逮捕されて、同年末死刑の判決を受けるが、セミョーノフ練兵場で銃殺になる直前、「皇帝の特赦」と称して懲役刑に切り替えられた。死と間近に対決したこのときの異常な体験は、のちに『白痴』や『罪と罰』で生々しく物語られる。シベリアのオムスク監獄で過ごしたその後の4年間は、不幸な囚人たちのうちにロシアの民衆を発見する過程であったと同時に、スラブ的神秘主義、苦悩と忍従の思想への傾斜を深めさせた、彼の思想的転身、いわゆる「信念の更生」の時期としても記憶される。シベリアへの途次、トボリスクでデカブリストの妻たちから贈られたロシア語訳『新約聖書』は、彼の生涯の愛読書となった。出獄後5年間は中央アジアのセミパラチンスクで兵卒として勤務し、この間、税務官吏の未亡人マリヤ・イサーエワと結婚、『伯父さまの夢』（1859）、『ステパンチコボ村とその住人』（1859）などブラック・ユーモア的な心理小説を発表。59年末、10年ぶりに首都ペテルブルグへの帰還を許されると、農奴解放を前に高揚した社会的空気のなかで、兄ミハイルとともに雑誌『時代(ブレーミヤ)』（1861～63）を創刊、時事問題、文学論に筆を振るうかたわら、シベリアの獄中体験に基づくユニークな作品『死の家の記録』（1861～62）と長編『虐げられた人々』（1861）を発表した。『罪と罰』のスビドリガイロフの前身ともいうべきワルコフスキー公爵の悪魔的な影を背景に、弱い善意の人間たちのもつれ合った愛の形をメロドラマ的に展開させたこの長編は、公爵の隠し子で異様な魅力をたたえた美少女ネルリの死で縁どられている。

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ヨーロッパ旅行と賭博癖

その後の数年間は、農奴解放後に訪れた政治的反動、社会的幻滅の時代として、また彼の個人生活のうえでの重大事件、つまり、1862年の最初の西欧旅行（63年の『夏象冬記』にその印象が語られる）、愛人スースロワとの異常な恋愛体験（『賭博(とばく)者』にその一端が描かれる）、64年には妻と兄の死などが重なった時期として注目される。彼の文学上の転機をなし、後期の大作群を解く鍵(かぎ)と一般に認められている中編『地下室の手記』（1864）がこの時期に書かれたのは偶然ではない。『時代』の廃刊に続いて刊行された雑誌『世紀(エポーハ)』の経営失敗などから、彼の個人生活はなかなか安定せず、67年、中編『賭博者』（1866）の口述が縁で知り合った速記者アンナ・スニートキナと再婚して以後は、債鬼の追及を逃れて4年間の国外生活を送らねばならなかった。てんかんの持病に悩まされ続け、賭博癖が輪をかける逼迫(ひっぱく)した生活のなかから、彼の名を不朽のものにした大作『罪と罰』（1866）、『白痴』（1868）、『悪霊』（1871～72）、中編『永遠の夫』（1870）などが次々と生み出されていったのは驚異である。

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円熟の晩年

外遊から帰って比較的落ち着いた生活に恵まれた晩年の10年間には、長編『未成年』（1875）と、彼の生涯の思索の集大成ともいうべき『カラマーゾフの兄弟』（1879～80）のほか、1876年以降は個人雑誌『作家の日記』を刊行して、時事的随想や文芸評論のほか、『柔和な女』（1876）、『おかしな男の夢』（1877）などのユニークな中編をここに発表した。死の半年ほど前に行ったプーシキン記念講演は、スラブ派、西欧派の双方から熱狂的な歓迎を受け、不遇であった彼の晩年に花を添えた。1881年1月28日（新暦2月9日）肺動脈破裂で死去。

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ドストエフスキー的世界の展開

彼の後期の大作群は、時代の先端的な社会的、思想的、政治的問題、さらには文化や科学の状況にまで鋭敏に反応しながら、同時に人間存在の根本問題を提起しえている点に特色が求められる。とくに注目されるのは、理論的殺人者ラスコーリニコフにおける人間を追求した『罪と罰』以降、調和と和解をもたらすべき「美しい人」ムイシキン公爵の敗北を描いた『白痴』、革命の思想と組織の病理をついた『悪霊』、青年の野心の生態を扱った『未成年』、父親殺しを主題に神と人間の問題に正面から取り組んだ『カラマーゾフの兄弟』と、各作品が取り上げる題材を異にしながらも、総体としては内面的な統一性で強く結ばれている点だろう。ここには題材を超えた神話的、フォークロア的世界観の存在も感得され、「ドストエフスキー的世界」ということが語られるのもこの意味においてである。『罪と罰』の両極的な人物像であるソーニャとスビドリガイロフが、それぞれ『白痴』のムイシキン、『悪霊』のスタブローギンへと受け継がれ、さらに『カラマーゾフの兄弟』におけるゾシマ長老とイワンの対決に発展するのなどはその一例で、彼の作品世界の人物たちは、この世に生きる者が必然的に負わねばならない「肯定と否定」の相克を作者自身とともに体現している趣(おもむき)がある。この相克の生々しさを、いわゆる「ポリフォニックなロマン」の形式のなかにそのまま再現しえたところに、ドストエフスキーの天才を認めるべきであろう。

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絶えざる再評価と影響力

彼がロシアだけでなく世界の文学、思想に与えた影響はきわめて広範だが、とくに注目されるのは時代の経過とともに彼の文学が絶えず「再発見」されてきたことである。19世紀末から20世紀初頭のロシアで、メレジコフスキー、ローザノフ、シェストフ、ボルインスキー、イワーノフ、ベルジャーエフらによって、彼の作品の哲学的、宗教的意味が明らかにされ、それはニーチェからカミュ、サルトルに至る実存主義的思想の系譜に引き継がれた。他方、1920年代にロシア・フォルマリズム、とくにバフチンがドストエフスキーの創作に「ポリフォニー」と「カーニバル」の原理を発見したことは、1960年代の構造主義的思想傾向の台頭とともに再評価され、現代の記号論的文学理解にも大きな影響を与えている。ソ連ではスターリン時代にドストエフスキーがほとんど禁書同然になる一時期があったが、50年代後半以降は研究も盛んで、72年からはもっとも完璧(かんぺき)なアカデミー版30巻全集の刊行も行われている。日本では1892～93年（明治25～26）に内田魯庵(うちだろあん)が『罪と罰』を訳して以来、第二次世界大戦後の米川(よねかわ)正夫、小沼文彦の個人訳全集に至るまで、主要作品については10種近くもの翻訳が出そろっており、世界でももっともドストエフスキーが広く読まれている。明治期の長谷川二葉亭(はせがわふたばてい)、北村透谷(とうこく)、島崎藤村(とうそん)、大正期の白樺(しらかば)派の作家たち、萩原朔太郎(はぎわらさくたろう)、芥川龍之介(あくたがわりゅうのすけ)らに彼の影響をみいだすことは容易であり、昭和10年代のシェストフの「不安の哲学」の流行を経て、小林秀雄(ひでお)、埴谷雄高(はにやゆたか)らの独自なドストエフスキー観も生み出された。戦後は、いわゆる第一次戦後派の文学がドストエフスキーの大きな影を負っているといえる。

［江川　卓］

『米川正夫訳『ドストエーフスキイ全集』全20巻（1969～74・河出書房新社）』▽『小沼文彦訳『ドストエフスキー全集』全20巻・別巻1（1963～91・筑摩書房）』▽『『ドストエフスキー全集』27巻・別巻1（1978～80・新潮社）』▽『H・トロワイヤ著、村上香住子訳『ドストエフスキー伝』（1982・中央公論社）』▽『小林秀雄著『ドストエフスキイ全論考』（1981・講談社）』▽『埴谷雄高著『ドストエフスキイ全論集』（1979・講談社）』▽『江川卓著『ドストエフスキー』（岩波新書）』▽『中村健之介著『ドストエフスキー・生と死の感覚』（1984・岩波書店）』▽『中村健之介著『ドストエフスキーと女性たち』（1984・講談社）』▽『清水孝純著『ドストエフスキー・ノート「罪と罰」の世界』（1996・九州大学出版会）』▽『小沼文彦著『随想ドストエフスキー』（1997・近代文芸社）』