Close Reading in Practice : Knowing the Author

For The Casual Reader
All ye who tarry here, please remember that we are dealing here with the study of literature here. A close reading study. That means a study so deep that the reader will be able to discuss the book concerned with others.
Even if you're a casual reader, this article may still benefit you. It may show how you can gain in reading pleasure by becoming interested in the background to the story that you're reading. Surely by knowing something about the author you will very likely be able to understand any book that he's written far more clearly.

The Teachers of Literature
For the teacher of literature things become a little more serious. You have to make a basic decision, Are your students going to pass because of you or in spite of you? As a teacher, you must be aware, that it has become your lot in life to inspire your students.
How can you do this? Well for example, you can compare the lives of various other writers with the writer currently under discussion. If the writer of the moment is Dostoevsky, you could, for example, compare him with Ernest Hemingway.

Dostoevsky suffered a life of extreme hardship whereas Hemingway, who was born into a wealthy family, chose to fight in a war and got out when he had had enough. The Russian could at no stage leave the tragic stage on which he played out his bitter life. He was permanently caught up in a time, in a social order and a religious dilemma that he could not extricate himself from.
So it must be understood that Dostoevsky's writing style had perforce to be totally different to Hemmingway's not matter how gifted each writer was.

A Close Examination of One Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky
The following information was obtained at www.visionaivity.com/dostojevsky.htm

According to some biographers Dostoevsky was prone to drink and a gambler who wrote about men with even more anti-social tendencies than himself.

According to these accounts, he more closely resembles the orgy-loving father Fyodor Karamazov in Dostoevsky's last novel than the religious and pure son Alyosha in the same novel.

Other biographers insist Dostoevsky remained true to his Orthodox religion -- and its accompanying guilt. Not that either alternative seems cheerful, I cannot say without doubts which view is accurate. It is up to historians and biographers, aided by whatever records exist, to determine what made Dostoevsky nevertheless so cheerful a writer.

It is possible that his life made him what he was: bitter, cynical, miserable.... Any number of negative adjectives can be applied to Dostoevsky.
The defining moments in Dostoevsky's life were the murder of his father and his own imprisonment for treason.
His father was an army doctor, who demanded order and morality.
While Dostoevsky was studying at an army school, his father was killed by serfs on the family estate. This murder made no sense to Dostoevsky. He never escaped a fascination with murder and crime, trying to understand why the poor might be illogically violent.

Much of Dostoevsky's writings deal with death and his obsession to understand it.

In 1846, after serving in the army, Dostoevsky wrote Poor Folk, a psychological novel. It was recognized as a masterpiece by many, and secured a good income for the author. It would be nearly two decades between this success and his next popular novel. One reason for this dramatic gap in creativity is Dostoevsky's involvement in the political upheavals of Russia.

With money came access to Western European ideas and culture. Dostoevsky, like many of the Russian middle-class, found himself wanting Russia to adopt Western political structures. He began writing and publishing calls for democratic reforms, an illegal and dangerous undertaking. Because of such activities, Dostoevsky and other writers were arrested, tried, and convicted as traitors to the tsar.

On the day of his planned execution, Dostoevsky was bound and blindfolded, waiting to die. Then, a messenger same to deliver word of a commuted sentence from the tsar. The writer was sent to Siberia, after a severe emotional torture the tsar had planned all along.

While in Siberia, Dostoevsky's political and philosophical views changed radically. In fact, his views began to mirror those of his father.
Dostoevsky became a nationalist; he believed that Russia would become the primary world power within his lifetime. More importantly, he believed that Russia was a chosen nation, with a sacred future blessed by God. Dostoevsky became a religious zealot, telling all who would listen that suffering as the only way to purify a sinful soul. Russia's suffering made the country pure.

Dostoevsky's narrator represents a break from all European literary tradition. Foremost, the narrator does not believe in God or Christian values; he is an individual, free to do as he wants. He, the narrator, is an existentialist.

Conclusion

Knowing Dostoevsky's life and circumstances should prepare one for a remarkable novel. A novel like no other. The Brothers Karamazov is such a unique book.