ENGLISH

Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia

By Irina Paperno

Book information

Publisher
Cornell University Press
Year
2018
ISBN
9781501724602
DOI
10.7591/9781501724602
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
32 MB (33365778 bytes)
Pages
336\331
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-23 20:13:33

Description

In the popular and scientific imagination, suicide has always been an enigmatic act that defies, and yet demands, explanation. Throughout the centuries, philosophers and writers, journalists and scientists have attempted to endow this act with meaning. In the nineteenth century, and especially in Russia, suicide became the focus for discussion of such issues as the immortality of the soul, free will and determinism, the physical and the spiritual, the individual and the social. Analyzing a variety of sources—medical reports, social treatises, legal codes, newspaper articles, fiction, private documents left by suicides—Irina Paperno describes the search for the meaning of suicide. Paperno focuses on Russia of the 1860s–1880s, when suicide was at the center of public attention.

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