Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Fête (Праздник)
For me the fête suggests an overall architecture for the novel: the façade of normalcy, of proper society, of righteous intentions, of progressive values is undercut by its realization in such an outrageous manner, just as Russian (provincial) society and its lofty self-perception is undercut by its true realization in the gossip-ridden, chaotic, meaningless, ugly realities we encounter throughout the text. What other impressions to we get from the scandalous realization of this charitable affair?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Several major themes such as generational tension, the power of text, and the manipulation and misunderstanding of ideas clash in this part of the novel.
ReplyDeleteThe Fête, both the first and second parts, seems to be what the whole novel up until that point is building up to; ideas are voiced which clash and cause a sort of pandemonium which ultimately ends with the fire. Gossip, which undoubtedly plays an extremely important role in the novel, fuels this fire, so to speak. The hyped up talk surrounding this "fête" (French for "party") is what leads many people to attend it. With the hope of creating a proper Western ball, Yulia, under the influence of Pyotr Stepanovich, tries to emulate everything "modern" which results in disaster. Is Dostoevsky trying to tell us something? Is he demonstrating the failure to come if Russia were to accept Western ways?
Interesting blog, it reminds me of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment , quote "Ordinary men have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because, don’t you see, they are ordinary. But extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way, just because they are extraordinary."
ReplyDeleteI tried to write a blog about it, hope you also like it in https://stenote.blogspot.com/2021/04/an-interview-with-fyodor.html.