«New People» by N. G. Chernyshevsky and «Man From Underground» by F. M. Dostoevsky: the Confrontation of Utopia and Soil
https://doi.org/10.26105/SSPU.2022.77.2.018
Abstract
The article examines the hidden controversy between the authors of two iconic works of Russian literature — the novel «What to do?» and the story «Notes from the underground». In these works N. G. Chernyshevsky and F. M. Dostoevsky expressed in many ways the quintessence of their own ideas about society and a man. Chernyshevsky created the utopia that combined criticism of bourgeois society with an ideal future world order, where a person would be free in his decisions and actions. If the first aspect was expressed in a voluminous, realistic and meaningful way, then the created variant of alternative social renewal, based on the theory of reasonable egoism, assumed an evolutionary change of a person with the aim of gradual transformation of modernity. In the criticism of the novel «What to do?» Dostoevsky put the main emphasis on the fallacy of Chernyshevsky’s ideas about the essence of a man and his destiny, on reckless fascination with speculative philosophical concepts and oblivion of moral and ethical norms that determined the existence of the human race in the past and should remain unshakable in the future.
About the Author
V. V. Zverev
Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Zverev Vasily Vasilyevich — Doctor of Sciences (History), Professor, Knowledgeable Researcher of the Center «History of Russia of the XIX — early XX centuries»
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Review
For citations:
Zverev V.V. «New People» by N. G. Chernyshevsky and «Man From Underground» by F. M. Dostoevsky: the Confrontation of Utopia and Soil. Surgut State Pedagogical University Bulletin. 2022;(3 (78)):17-33. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.26105/SSPU.2022.77.2.018
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