Professor Ruzhitsky will devote his lecture to a discussion of the distinctive lexical system of Dostoevsky\u2019s idiolect as well as a number of philosophical questions which run through his body of works. Through the prism of the great writer\u2019s use of language, Professor Ruzhitsky will explore a series of key concepts in Dostoevsky\u2019s writings: life, death, love, suffering, fear and laughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan is a mystery. This mystery must be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life trying to unravel it, don\u2019t say that your time has been wasted. I am at work on this mystery, for I want to be a human being\u2026\u201d<\/em> WHEN:<\/strong>\u00a0Friday 18 February 2022, 19:00-20:30 (GMT)<\/p>\n WHERE:<\/strong>\u00a0Zoom<\/p>\n LANGUAGE:<\/strong>\u00a0English<\/p>\n FEE:<\/strong>\u00a0Voluntary donation*<\/p>\n Please\u00a0REGISTER in advance<\/a><\/strong><\/u>\u00a0(with your name and email address). After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with a Zoom joining link.<\/p>\n About\u00a0Professor Igor Ruzhitsky<\/strong><\/p>\n Igor Vasilievich Ruzhitsky holds the post-doctoral degree of Doctor of Sciences in Philology.\u00a0He is a Professor of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language in the Faculty of Philology at Lomonosov Moscow State University and a Professor of the Department of Russian as a Foreign Language at Moscow Region State University (formerly Moscow Region Pedagogical Institute).\u00a0He supervises the research project \u201cA Dictionary of Dostoevsky\u2019s Language\u201d and is the author of numerous articles and books linked to the study of Dostoevsky\u2019s literary works.<\/p>\n Brad Evans:<\/strong>\u00a0Was Dostoevsky a nihilist in the same way as, for instance, Charles Bukowski \u2013 who found Dostoevsky an influence on his own writing?<\/p>\n Prof.\u00a0Igor Ruzhitsky:<\/strong>\u00a01.\u00a0Undoubtedly, we can find quite a lot of parallels between the works of Charles Bukowski and the books of Dostoevsky.\u00a0And this is quite natural: Bukowski took a lot, for example, from Nietzsche, and Nietzsche, as everybody knows, from Dostoevsky.\u00a0First of all, probably, Kirillov\u2019s \u201cphilosophy\u201d from \u201cDemons\u201d (the same nihilism).\u00a0Or suffering, psychological and spiritual, as one of the central themes of creativity.\u00a0Sometimes it seems that Bukowski identified himself with Dostoevsky\u2019s heroes, with many of them, even with Marmeladov.\u00a0Although there are a lot of differences between Bukowski and Dostoevsky.<\/p>\n 2. I categorically disagree with Charles Bukowski\u2019s opinion about how Dostoevsky came to Christ.\u00a0Bukowski rather writes about the path that is close to himself \u2013 through dirt, failures, roulette, rape of a young girl, etc.\u00a0All this is more than controversial.\u00a0Although, of course, there was enough dirt in Dostoevsky\u2019s life.\u00a0Bukowski sees in Dostoevsky what he wants to see, what is close to him, and this is quite natural.\u00a0And he believes in what is close to him.<\/p>\n 3. There is no doubt that Dostoevsky\u2019s path to Christ was influenced primarily by the imitation of the death penalty.\u00a0Here faith and doubt were united, and the struggle of faith and doubt remained throughout Dostoevsky\u2019s life.\u00a0The same key year I talked about, 1864, Dostoevsky\u2019s thoughts at the body of his deceased wife: \u201cMasha is lying on the table.\u00a0Will I see Masha?\u201d.\u00a0I don\u2019t find this \u2013 the struggle of faith and doubt \u2013 in Charles Bukowski\u2019s books, at least, this theme is far from the main one.\u00a0And when Bukowski writes that Dostoevsky found his Christ, then\u2026\u00a0I don\u2019t know, many researchers will agree with this, but I can\u2019t.\u00a0In my opinion, Dostoevsky lived with this struggle of the devil and God in his heart.\u00a0I know that many will disagree with me, but I think so.\u00a0If this is considered as Dostoevsky\u2019s nihilism, then Bukowski\u2019s nihilism hardly has anything in common with it.<\/p>\n 4. And I can\u2019t agree that the word \u201cnihilism\u201d is generally applicable to Dostoevsky, at least if by nihilism we mean what the writer himself put into the meaning of this word.\u00a0This word, of course, is included in the \u201cDictionary of Dostoevsky\u2019s Language\u201d.\u00a0And this is primarily an expletive, invective word.<\/p>\n Of course, this is very brief\u2026\u00a0I want to say that all this is a rather amateurish view.\u00a0Perhaps, when I start working on the dictionary entries \u201cChrist\u201d and \u201cChristian\u201d, some new facts of a linguistic nature will appear, on the basis of which it will be possible to draw more reasoned conclusions.<\/p>\n * While there is no charge for our online events, CamRuSS would welcome any donations towards the support of our volunteers\u2019 efforts during this time.<\/p>\n Suggested donation \u00a35-10.<\/em> You can send your donations via: THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!<\/p>\n
\n(F.M. Dostoevsky, 1839)<\/p>\n
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