Dostoyevsky in the Face of Death

Julia Kristeva has been both attracted and repelled by Dostoyevsky since her youth.In this extraordinary book, by turns poetic and intensely personal, she brings her unique critical sensibility to bear on the tormented and visionary Russian author. Kristeva ranges widely across Dostoyevsky’s novels and his journalism, plunging deep into the great works-and many of the smaller ones-to investigate her fascination with the Russian author.What emerges is a luminous vision of the writer’s achievements, seen in a wholly new way through Kristeva’s distinctive perspective on language.With her keen psychoanalytical eye, she offers brilliant insights into the passionate heroines of the great novels.Focusing on Dostoyevsky’s polyphonic writing, Kristeva also demonstrates the importance of Orthodox Christianity throughout his body of work, analyzing the complex ways his carnivalesque theology informs his fiction and commentary. An original and profound interpretation of one of the nineteenth centu