The psychologization of the Underground Man
Nietzsche’s image of Dostoevsky through the French translation L’esprit souterrain
After reading L’esprit souterrain, the first French translation of Dostoevsky’s Notes
from the Underground, Nietzsche embraced Dostoevsky as a master psychologist, notwithstanding their ideological
differences. This article argues that the much-discussed influence of Dostoevsky on Nietzsche can be better understood by
unraveling the specific nature of the translation L’esprit souterrain. An analysis shows that as a consequence of
the adopted translation strategy, the character of the Underground Man, who in the Russian context functions as a
philosophical-ideological type, becomes a purely psychological type. This is all the more important, since Nietzsche’s enthusiasm
for Dostoevsky led to rereadings of Dostoevsky through a Nietzschean lens.
Article outline
- Introduction
- Dostoevsky’s Underground Man as an ideological-philosophical type
- Halpérine-Kaminsky and Morice’s Underground Man as a psychological type
- Paving the path for Dostoietzsche
- Conclusion
- Notes
-
References
References (42)
References
Boulogne, Pieter. 2011. Het temmen van de Scyth. De vroege Nederlandse receptie van F.M. Dostoevskij. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Pegasus.
Boulogne, Pieter. 2015. “Europe’s conquest of the Russian novel: The pivotal role of France and Germany.” In IberoSlavica, Special Issue: Translation in Iberian-Slavonic Cultural Exchange, ed. by Teresa Seruya and Hanna Pięta, 167–191. Lisbon: CLEPUL.
Brandes, Georg. 1889. Dostojewski. Ein Essay. Berlin: Brachvogel & Ranft.
Cho, Heekyoung. 2016. Translation’s Forgotten History: Russian Literature, Japanese Mediation, and the Formation of Modern Korean Literature. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Clowes, Edith W. 1988. The revolution of Moral Consciousness. Nietzsche in Russian Literature 1890–1914. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.
Clowes, Edith W. 2016. “Mapping the unconscious in Notes from the Underground and On the Genealogy of Morals: A reconsideration of modern moral consciousness.” In Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Philosophy, Morality, Tragedy, ed. by Jeff Love and Jeffrey Metzger, 125–142. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Colli, Giorgio and Montinari, Mazzino (ed.) 1984. Friedrich Nietzsche Briefe. Januar 1887 – Januar 1889. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Conrad, Michael Georg. 1974. “Von Büchertisch [
Raskolnikow
].” In Russische Literatur in Deutschland. Texte zur Rezeption von den Achtziger Jahren bis zur Jahrhundertwende, ed. by Sigfrid Hoefert, 15–16. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Conradi, Hermann. 1974. “F.M. Dostojewski.” In Russische Literatur in Deutschland. Texte zur Rezeption von den Achtziger Jahren bis zur Jahrhundertwende, ed. by Sigrid Hoefert, 17–29. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Dienstag, Joshua Foa. 2016. “Nietzsche’s pessimism in the Shadow of Dostoevsky’s.” In Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Philosophy, Morality, Tragedy, ed. by Jeff Love and Jeffrey Metzger, 109–124. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Dostoevsky, F. M. 1972. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v tridcati tomakh. Chudozhestvennye proizvedeniia. Tom I. Bednye liudi. Povesti i rasskazy 1846–1847. Leningrad: Nauka.
Dostoevsky, F. M. 1973. Polnoe sobranie sochinenii v tridcati tomakh. Chudozhestvennye proizvedeniia. Tom V. Povesti i rasskazy 1862–1866. Igrok. Leningrad: Nauka.
Dostoïevsky, Th. 1886. L’esprit souterrain. Paris: Plon.
Frank, Joseph. 1979. Dostoevsky. The Seeds of Revolt. 1821–1849. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Frank, Joseph. 1986. Dostoevsky. The Stir of Liberation. 1860–1865. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gal’tsova, E. D. 2008. “Istoriia rukopisi kak priëm perevodcheskoi adaptatsii: ‘Podpol’nyi dukh’ (1886) Gal’perina-Kaminskogo i Morisa po proizvedeniiam Dostoevskogo.” In Tekstologiia i geneticheskaia kritika: obshchie problemy, teoreticheskie perspektivy, 113–135. Moskva: IMLI RAN.
Genette, Gérard. 1987. Seuils. Paris: Editions du Seuil.
Gillespie, Michael Allan. 2016. “Dostoevsky’s impact on Nietzsche’s understanding of nihilism.” In Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Philosophy, Morality, Tragedy, ed. by Jeff Love and Jeffrey Metzger, 87–108. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Grillaert, Nel. 2008. What the God-seekers found in Nietzsche. The Reception of Nietzsche’s Übermensch by the Philosophers of the Russian Religious Renaissance. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Halpérine-Kaminsky, Ely. 1929. “Comment on a dû traduire Dostoïevsky.” In L’esprit souterrain, by Th. Dostoïevsky, i–xxviii. Paris: Plon.
Hauswedell, Ernst. 1924. Auszug aus der Dissertation: Die kenntnis von Dostojewsky und seinem Werke im deutschen Naturalismus und der Einfluß seines Raskolnikow auf die Epoche von 1880–95. München: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. Philosophische Fakultät. I. Sektion.
Kittel, Harald. 1998. “Inclusions and exclusions: The ‘Göttingen approach’ to translation studies and inter-literary history.” In Translating Literatures, Translating Cultures: New Vistas and Approaches in Literary Studies, ed. by Kurt Mueller-Vollmer and Michail Irmscher, 3–14. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.
Luft, Eric V. D. and Stenberg, Douglas G. 1991. “Dostoevskii’s specific influence on Nietzsche’s preface to Daybreak.” Journal of History of Ideas 52 (3): 441–461.
Love, Jeff and Jeffrey Metzger (eds). 2016. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Philosophy, Morality, Tragedy. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Miller, C. A. 1973. “Nietzsche’s ‘discovery’ of Dostoevsky.” In Nietzsche-Studien. Internationales Jahrbuch für die Nietzsche-Forschung. Band 2, 202–57. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Milosz, Czeslaw. 1975. “Dostoevsky and Swedenburg.” Slavic Review 34 (2): 302–218.
Minssen, Hans Friedriech. 1933. Die französische Kritik und Dostojewski. Hamburg: Hamburger Studien zu Volkstum und Kultur der Romanen.
Müller-Buck, Renate. 2002. “‘Der einzige Psychologe, von dem ich etwas zu lernen hatte’: Nietzsche liest Dostojewskij.” Dostoevsky Studies, New Series, VI1: 89–118.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. 1990. Twilight of the Idols and The Anti-Christ. Trans. by R. J. Hollingdale. London: Penguin.
Poritzky, J. E. 1902. Heine, Dostojewski, Gor’kij. Leipzig: Richard Wöpke.
Reinholdt, Alexander von. 1882. “F.M. Dostojewski. 1821–1881.” Baltische Monatschrift 29 (4): 253–276.
Stellino, Paolo. 2015. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. On the Verge of Nhilism. Bern: Peter Lang.
Vogüé, Eugène Melchior de. 1885. “Les écrivains russes contemporains.” Revue des deux mondes 671: 312–356.
Vogüé, Eugène-Melchior de. 1886a. Le roman russe. Paris: Plon.
Vogüé, Eugène-Melchior de. 1886b. “Les livres russes en France.” Revue des deux mondes 861: 823–841.
Waite, Geoff and Francesca Cernia Slovin. 2016. “Nietzsche with Dostoevsky: Unrequited Collaborators in Crime without Punishment.” In Nietzsche and Dostoevsky. Philosophy, Morality, Tragedy, ed. by Jeff Love and Jeffrey Metzger, 3–36. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Zabel, Eugen. 1884a. “F.M. Dostojewski.” Die Gegenwart 201: 307–309.
Zabel, Eugen. 1884b. “Porträts aus dem russischen Literaturleben.” Unsere Zeit. Deutsche Revue der Gegenwart. 191: 332–346.
Zabel, Eugen. 1885. Literarische Streifzüge durch Rußland. Berlin: Verlag von A. Deubner.
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
Boulogne, Pieter
2022.
Retranslation as an (un)successful counter-narrative: Les frères Karamazov versus Les frères Karamazov.
Slovo.ru: Baltic accent 13:1
► pp. 129 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.