The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot
The article analyzes the Rothschild theme in the novel The Idiot, a motif strictly connected with the myth of Napoleon, in which Dostoevsky was keenly interested during all his artistic life. Both Napoleon’s and Rothschild’s features pertain to Napoleonic heroes such as Ganya Ivolgin and Ippolit Ter...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature
2020-03-01
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| Series: | Достоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал |
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| Online Access: | http://dostmirkult.ru/images/2020-1/DOST_2020-19-32-51.pdf |
| _version_ | 1818424840800960512 |
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| author | Nikolai N. Podosokorsky |
| author_facet | Nikolai N. Podosokorsky |
| author_sort | Nikolai N. Podosokorsky |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The article analyzes the Rothschild theme in the novel The Idiot, a motif strictly connected with the myth of Napoleon, in which Dostoevsky was keenly interested during all his artistic life. Both Napoleon’s and Rothschild’s features pertain to Napoleonic heroes such as Ganya Ivolgin and Ippolit Terentev. Moreover, in the novel, the historical and cultural fusion of Napoleon and Rothschild becomes more complex because of the references to different representatives of the Rothschild dynasty and to different Napoleons – Napoleon I and Napoleon III, governor of France at that time. Dostoevsky was critic both to Bonaparte and Rothschild, as in their views he detected a fundamental deviation from the core of Christianism. Dostoevsky considered the motif of the power of money and Mammon’s greatness as one of the severest problems of the 19th century, “a cruel time, a time of business and money, a calculating time, full of tables, numbers, and zeros of all kinds and types”. Since his first works, Dostoevsky relates the Napoleonic idea with the idea of enrichment (“Mr. Prokharchin”, “Uncle’s dream”, Crime and Punishment, and others). However, in Dostoevsky’s early works the names of Napoleon and Rothschild developed rather parallel to each other and fused together later in the novels The Idiot and The Adolescent. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-14T14:04:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-f51bac417d8b4eb1aae5b3dfe340de50 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2619-0311 2712-8512 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-14T14:04:26Z |
| publishDate | 2020-03-01 |
| publisher | Russian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Достоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал |
| spelling | doaj.art-f51bac417d8b4eb1aae5b3dfe340de502022-12-21T22:58:36ZengRussian Academy of Sciences. A.M. Gorky Institute of World LiteratureДостоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал2619-03112712-85122020-03-011315010.22455/2619-0311-2020-1-31-50The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The IdiotNikolai N. Podosokorsky0Novgorod National Universe Yaroslav MudryiThe article analyzes the Rothschild theme in the novel The Idiot, a motif strictly connected with the myth of Napoleon, in which Dostoevsky was keenly interested during all his artistic life. Both Napoleon’s and Rothschild’s features pertain to Napoleonic heroes such as Ganya Ivolgin and Ippolit Terentev. Moreover, in the novel, the historical and cultural fusion of Napoleon and Rothschild becomes more complex because of the references to different representatives of the Rothschild dynasty and to different Napoleons – Napoleon I and Napoleon III, governor of France at that time. Dostoevsky was critic both to Bonaparte and Rothschild, as in their views he detected a fundamental deviation from the core of Christianism. Dostoevsky considered the motif of the power of money and Mammon’s greatness as one of the severest problems of the 19th century, “a cruel time, a time of business and money, a calculating time, full of tables, numbers, and zeros of all kinds and types”. Since his first works, Dostoevsky relates the Napoleonic idea with the idea of enrichment (“Mr. Prokharchin”, “Uncle’s dream”, Crime and Punishment, and others). However, in Dostoevsky’s early works the names of Napoleon and Rothschild developed rather parallel to each other and fused together later in the novels The Idiot and The Adolescent.http://dostmirkult.ru/images/2020-1/DOST_2020-19-32-51.pdfdostoevskynapoleonrothschildthe idiotthe myth of napoleonherzenheinethe adolescent |
| spellingShingle | Nikolai N. Podosokorsky The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot Достоевский и мировая культура: Филологический журнал dostoevsky napoleon rothschild the idiot the myth of napoleon herzen heine the adolescent |
| title | The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot |
| title_full | The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot |
| title_fullStr | The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot |
| title_short | The Legend of Rothschild as the “Napoleon of Finance” in Dostoevsky’s Novel The Idiot |
| title_sort | legend of rothschild as the napoleon of finance in dostoevsky s novel the idiot |
| topic | dostoevsky napoleon rothschild the idiot the myth of napoleon herzen heine the adolescent |
| url | http://dostmirkult.ru/images/2020-1/DOST_2020-19-32-51.pdf |
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