Russian Studies Guest Lecturer Dr. Yuri Corrigan

Published Nov 28, 2018 by
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ECU Thomas Harriot College of Arts & Sciences Russian Studies Guest Lecture November 28, 2018, 5:30 pm 2409 Joyner Library “Nihilism as Refuge: Rethinking the Philosophical Dostoevsky” Dr. Yuri Corrigan Assistant Professor of Russian, Boston University Visiting Professor, Harvard University, Davis Center Author of Dostoevsky and the Riddle of the Self (Northwestern UP, 2017) Dostoevsky’s critique of modern nihilism (an umbrella term which he used to encompass such ideologies as materialism, atheism, egoism, and positivism) has been understood primarily in ideological terms. The canonical Dostoevsky, as established by such scholars as Konstantin Mochulsky and Joseph Frank, conceived his novels as refutations of modern ideologies that he viewed as destructive for both self and society. Through a close study of Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment, this lecture seeks a more precise understanding of Dostoevsky’s view of nihilism not as a cause but as a symptom of a deeper, psychological disorder. Metaphysical despair (the discovery of the ‘death of God’) in Dostoevsky’s novels, I argue, disguises itself as a philosophical awakening or ideological commitment, while its primary and more practical purpose is to suppress and negate the overwhelming demands of interiority, especially those divine transcendent elements that plague and threaten the self from within. Approaching nihilism as a psychological disorder can help us adjust and sharpen our understanding of Dostoevsky as a pioneer of the unconscious whose practical meditations on how to discover and nurture a robust inner life bear immense, and yet largely untapped, potential for the fields of philosophy, psychology, medicine, and theology in our time. For more information contact mureninae@ecu.edu or wilmesj15@ecu.edu Event is sponsored by the THCAS Interdisciplinary Programs in Russian Studies and International Studies, Departments of Foreign Languages & Literatures and History,