- 297 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
About this book
Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Gambler is one of the most profound literary works to treat the phenomenon of gambling with a remarkable depth of psychological analysis and a wide-ranging cultural and philosophical exploration of obsessive behavior, from addictive gambling to erotic passion. This novel delves into the cultural, psychological, and philosophical issues surrounding games of chance such as temporality, freedom, rebellion, choice, uncertainty, determinism, and creativity. This is the first book in English dedicated to The Gambler. This volume considers the phenomenon of gambling from a broad interdisciplinary perspective, focusing not only on medical and psychological concepts of gambling as pathology, but also on the broader cultural, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic aspects of the problem. What triggers fascination with risk-taking and various aleatory activities? What are the relations between gambling, play, and creativity? Can gambling be seen as a form of social or existential rebellion and protest or even a quest for freedom? Scholars from a variety of fields, including psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, literary studies, and musicology, have contributed to this volume and analyzed Dostoevsky's view of gambling as a fundamental problem of human existence, with implications in the realms of philosophy, religion, and aesthetics.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Dostoevsky’s The Gambler by Svetlana Evdokimova in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Russian Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Transliterations and Translations
- Introduction
- Part I: Through the Lens of Psychology
- Chapter 1: The Gambler and the Poet: Notes on Dostoevsky, Illness, and Creativity
- Chapter 2: Dostoevsky at Play: Between Risk and Uncertainty in Roulettenburg
- Part II: Sociohistorical Contexts
- Chapter 3: Polina and Lady Luck in Dostoevsky’s The Gambler
- Chapter 4: The Gambler: Gambling the Self, the Family, and the Country Away
- Part III: Philosophic Dimensions
- Chapter 5: Betting on Zero: Existential Themes in Dostoevsky’s The Gambler
- Chapter 6: The Gambler, Not a Comedy
- Chapter 7: From Zero to Hero: Gambling and Human Worth
- Chapter 8: The Shape of Nothing: The Antinomic Essence of Play and The Gambler
- Part IV: Questions of Aesthetics
- Chapter 9: The Russian Quest for Form, Narrative, and Salvation
- Chapter 10: How the Character Writes the Novel: Dostoevsky’s The Gambler (or Как сделан «Игрок» Достоевского)
- Chapter 11: Prokofiev’s Gambler
- Index
- About the Contributors