The infamous chapter of “the Grand Inquisitor” in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” is rightfully praised as one of the great literary deconstructions of coercive institutional power. Ivan Karamazov’s parable presents a terrifying possibility: that human beings, unable to bear the freedom Christ gives them, will eventually prefer an institution that relieves them of the […]
Many argue that human history is cyclical. The saying, “those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” assumes that history is cyclical by default; this is true despite the postmodern ethos of amoral progression. Even those who are renowned for dismissing “slippery slope” arguments have a conditioned fear of somehow finding […]
The Brothers Karamazov is the last novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky; it was initially serialized in 1879 by Russkiy Vestnik magazine. The story of this novel, set in 19th-century Russia, details the contradictory brothers of Alexei, Ivan, and Dmitri Karamazov. Though the majority of the novel deals with the elder brother Dmitri’s attempt to clear himself of parricide, Dostoevsky […]