Anti-nihilistic novel

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An anti-nihilistic novel[note 1] is a form of novel from late 19th-century Russian literature, that came as a result of the disillusionment in the Russian nihilist movement and revolutionary socialism of the 1860s and 1870s.[1] The genre was influential in shaping subsequent ideas on nihilism as a philosophy and cultural phenomenon.[2] Its name derives from the historical usage of the word nihilism as broadly applied to revolutionary movements within the Russian Empire at the time.

In the more formulaic works of this genre, the typical protagonist is a nihilist student. In contrast to the Chernyshevskian character of Rakhmetov however, the nihilist is weak-willed and is easily seduced into subversive activities by a villain, often a Pole (in reference to Polish nationalist insurrectionary efforts against the Russian Empire).[note 2][3] The more meritous works of this genre managed to explore nihilism with less caricature.[3] Many anti-nihilistic novels were published in the conservative literary magazine The Russian Messenger edited by Mikhail Katkov.[1]

Background

Ivan Turgenev, who first popularized the term "nihilism" in his 1862 novel Fathers and Sons (photo by Félix Nadar)
These paragraphs are an excerpt from Nihilism § Russian nihilism.[edit]
From the period 1860–1917, Russian nihilism was both a nascent form of nihilist philosophy and broad cultural movement which overlapped with certain revolutionary tendencies of the era,[4] for which it was often wrongly characterized as a form of political terrorism.[5] Russian nihilism centered on the dissolution of existing values and ideals, incorporating theories of hard determinism, atheism, materialism, positivism, and rational egoism, while rejecting metaphysics, sentimentalism, and aestheticism.[6] Leading philosophers of this school of thought included Nikolay Chernyshevsky and Dmitry Pisarev.[7]

List of anti-nihilistic novels

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In Russian: антинигилистический роман (antinigilisticheskiy roman), from нигилизм (nigilizm) meaning 'nihilism'.
  2. ^ See: Polish insurrection of 1830–31, and Polish insurrection of 1863.

References

  1. ^ a b Тюнькин, К. И. "Антинигилисти́ческий Рома́н". Concise Literary Encyclopedia (in Russian). Archived from the original on September 10, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c d Petrov, Kristian (2019). "'Strike out, right and left!': a conceptual-historical analysis of 1860s Russian nihilism and its notion of negation". Stud East Eur Thought. 71 (2): 73–97. doi:10.1007/s11212-019-09319-4.
  3. ^ a b Ulam, Adam Bruno (1977). Prophets and Conspirators in Pre-Revolutionary Russia. Transaction Publishers. p. 146. ISBN 1412832195.
  4. ^
    • "Nihilism". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 January 2024. Nihilism, (from Latin nihil, "nothing"), originally a philosophy of moral and epistemological skepticism that arose in 19th-century Russia during the early years of the reign of Tsar Alexander II.
    • Pratt, Alan. "Nihilism". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In Russia, nihilism became identified with a loosely organized revolutionary movement (C.1860-1917) that rejected the authority of the state, church, and family.
    • Lovell, Stephen (1998). "Nihilism, Russian". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor and Francis. doi:10.4324/9780415249126-E072-1. ISBN 9780415250696. Nihilism was a broad social and cultural movement as well as a doctrine.
  5. ^ "Nihilism". Encyclopædia Britannica. 3 January 2024. The philosophy of nihilism then began to be associated erroneously with the regicide of Alexander II (1881) and the political terror that was employed by those active at the time in clandestine organizations opposed to absolutism.
  6. ^
  7. ^ Lovell, Stephen (1998). "Nihilism, Russian". Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor and Francis. doi:10.4324/9780415249126-E072-1. ISBN 9780415250696. The major theorists of Russian Nihilism were Nikolai Chernyshevskii and Dmitrii Pisarev, although their authority and influence extended well beyond the realm of theory.
  8. ^ a b "Демифологизация русской интеллигенции". Нева (in Russian). No. 8. 2007. Archived from the original on 2015-07-14. Retrieved 2015-07-14.
  9. ^ a b c "Nihilism". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). 1970–1979. Retrieved October 1, 2020 – via TheFreeDictionary.com. and antinihilistic novels, notably A. F. Pisemsky's Troubled Seas, N. S. Leskov's Nowhere to Go, and V. P. Kliushnikov's The Mirage
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Батюто, А. И. (1982). "Антинигилистический роман". История русской литературы (in Russian). Vol. 3. Наука. Ленинградское отделение. pp. 279–314.

Further reading

  • Moser, Charles A. (1964). Anti-Nihilism in the Russian Novel of the 1860s. The Hague.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Терехин, Валерий. "Против течений" : утаенные русские писатели : типология "антинигилистического" романа. 3-е изд. // Терёхин В.Л. Утаённые русские писатели : [монографии, статьи]. М.: Знак, 2009. - C. 3-114 [Valeriĭ Terekhin. "Protiv techeniĭ" : utaennye russkie pisateli : tipologii͡a "antinigilisticheskogo" romana. Utaënnye russkie pisateli : [monografii, statʹi].Moskva: Znak, 2009. - pp. 3-114]