The Idiot- Dostoevsky's Fantastic Prince: A Phenomenological Approach

by Dennis Patrick Slattery

In Dostoevsky's novel, The Idiot, Prince Myshkin is more an angelic spirit than he is a man; he is a complex metaphor for fantasy, a mode of consciousness that is divorced from the earth and one which envisions human nature as univocal, unified, innocent, and free from contradiction.
Drawing on phenomenology to interrogate those common human dimensions of lived space and temporality, the study examines The Idiot to articulate the way in which fantasy offers not an imagined eschatology rooted in the human order, but rather a futile design to imparadise a world already fallen. For diseased, Dostoevsky's prince is a presence that reminds the community of what is absent.

Paperback

First published December 31, 1983

About the author

Dennis Patrick Slattery, Ph.D., is a core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute who helped shape the development of the Mythological Studies program.

He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 17 books, including four volumes of poetry.

He likes motorcycles and currently resides in Texas with his wife Sandy.