Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia

Download or read book Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia written by Irina Paperno and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-05 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the popular and scientific imagination, suicide has always been an enigmatic act that defies, and yet demands, explanation. Throughout the centuries, philosophers and writers, journalists and scientists have attempted to endow this act with meaning. In the nineteenth century, and especially in Russia, suicide became the focus for discussion of such issues as the immortality of the soul, free will and determinism, the physical and the spiritual, the individual and the social. Analyzing a variety of sources—medical reports, social treatises, legal codes, newspaper articles, fiction, private documents left by suicides—Irina Paperno describes the search for the meaning of suicide. Paperno focuses on Russia of the 1860s–1880s, when suicide was at the center of public attention.