Nikolai Chernyshevsky, What is to be Done?, Introductory Video
What is to be Done? is one of the most influential works of Russian literature. This video gives some of the theoretical background to understanding the work and its significance. The book is, as Russian authors like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy see it, the epitome of modern scientific point of view and hence reveals the destructiveness […]
Nikolai Chernyshevsky, What is to be Done?, Chapter 4
Chapter 4 of What is to be Done? reintroduces Lopukhov to the action, under a different name. He marries a young lady. But perhaps the most important event or development in Chapter 4 is the transition of Vera to a feminist–the equality of women will become her life’s mission and Chernyshevsky tries to describe all […]
Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground VI
This video concerns how the man from the underground was incapable of love, though he was tempted by it. It culminates with our man from the underground’s heartbreaking confrontation with his potential love.
Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground V
This begins the analysis of part 2 of Notes where Dostoyevsky rejects work and frienships as sources of individual meaning.
Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground IV
This concerns how the viewpoint of modern science is not ultimately satisfactory for our man from the underground–and how the inadequacies of that position lead to a silent defense of Christianity in the work.
Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground III
This third video concerns the first part of Notes from the Underground, and specifically about the meaning of modern science as the educated man of the 19th Century experiences it.
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. “Our Muzzled Freedom” and “Why Did We Stand For It?”
This video contains Solzhenitsyn’s critique of the gulag (ideology) from the perspective of politics. It shows that the gulag affects public opinion (in Our Muzzled Freedom) and that public opinion affects the gulag (in Why Did We Stand For It?). Tyranny shapes the gulag and the society, in mutually reinforcing ways–none of which are foreign […]
Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground I
Notes is a novel in two parts, and this video is an introduction to those parts–the first part concerns how modern science undermines morality; the second how it undermines human manners.
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago. “Our Muzzled Freedom” and “Why Did We Stand For It?”
ANALYTICSEDIT VIDEOThis video contains Solzhenitsyn’s critique of the gulag (ideology) from the perspective of politics. It shows that the gulag affects public opinion (in Our Muzzled Freedom) and that public opinion affects the gulag (in Why Did We Stand For It?). Tyranny shapes the gulag and the society, in mutually reinforcing ways–none of which are […]
Dostoyevsky, Notes from the Underground II
This video introduces the level of perspective in the dialoge that forms the first part of Notes, focusing on the first three parts of Underground but setting the stage for the entire first Part of Notes from the Underground.