While Dostoevsky's relation to religion is well-trod ground, there exists no comprehensive study of Dostoevsky and Catholicism. Elizabeth Blake's ambitious and learned
Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground fills this glaring omission in the scholarship. Previous commentators have traced a wide-ranging hostility in Dostoevsky's understanding of Catholicism to his Slavophilism. Blake depicts a far more nuanced picture. Her close reading demonstrates that he is repelled and fascinated by Catholicism in all its medieval, Reformation, and modern manifestations. Dostoevsky saw in Catholicism not just an inspirational source for the Grand Inquisitor but a political force, an ideological wellspring, a unique mode of intellectual inquiry, and a source of cultural production. Blake's insightful textual analysis is accompanied by an equally penetrating analysis of nineteenth-century European revolutionary history, from Paris to Siberia that undoubtedly influenced the evolution of Dostoevsky's thought.
About the AuthorElizabeth A. Blake is an assistant professor of Russian in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Saint Louis University.
Book InformationISBN 9780810129573
Author Elizabeth A. BlakeFormat Hardback
Page Count 282
Imprint Northwestern University PressPublisher Northwestern University Press
Weight(grams) 557g