Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent in German-Speaking Countries

Abstract

The article analyzes the reception of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent in German-speaking countries, covering the period from the first translations of the novel into German and the first reactions by writers, critics, and researchers to the present day. The material here analyzed (reviews, essays, prefaces to publications, and numerous reprints of The Adolescent throughout the 20th century, scientific articles, monographs) indicates a quite stable interest in this novel by German intellectuals. The available material shows that the recipients were somehow interested in all aspects of the novel, from its themes and main problems to the peculiarities of its poetics. The analysis and the evaluation of the novel are usually carried out in direct connection with the writer’s life, his worldview, religious and aesthetic beliefs, and consider the cultural context of his era. The article shows how the novel was differently received at different times, as well as the connections with ideological and individual peculiarities, due to the specific task that the recipient set himself. The common denominator can be found in the recognition of The Adolescent as one of the most famous novels of Dostoevsky (as it is always considered as one of the “five great novels”, or “Pentateuch”); however, it is also true that The Adolescent presents less value and popularity than Dostoevsky’s other novels, as it is proved by the smaller quantity of research about it. Nevertheless, The Adolescent receives well-deserved recognition to this day not only as a relevant work of the famous Russian author but also for the experimental, modernist nature of its artistic structure, thereby consolidating the canonical significance of the novel in the European literary process of the 21st century.