James Hogg, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and romantic anachronism

Abstract

This thesis explores the problematic nature of the term "Romanticism" as traditionally dictated by national and temporal constraints. Most scholars and literary institutions (i.e., anthologies) define Romanticism as a solely European phenomenon of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This definition, intentionally or not, serves an elitist function in assuming that only Europeans of a specific era were capable of producing texts with Romantic qualities. Further, even authors who fall into this temporal and nationalistic category are often excluded due to their social class. This thesis seeks to extend the boundaries of Romanticism through examining two authors who, despite some recent efforts at re-appropriation, had previously been excluded by Romanticism: Scotland's James Hogg (1770-1835) and Russia's Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). Specifically, this thesis explores a defining Romantic aesthetic trait -- the Romantic Anachronism -- as it operates in both authors' uncannily similar masterworks, Hogg's The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824), and Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880). By placing emphasis on aesthetic rather than temporal and national constraints, Romanticism may be redefined towards an inclusivity that bolsters the relevance of Romanticism for current and future scholars operating in an increasingly globalized and rapidly diversifying world.