The psychologization of the Underground Man

Abstract

After reading L’esprit souterrain, the first French translation of Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground, Nietzsche embraced Dostoevsky as a master psychologist, notwithstanding their ideological differences. This article argues that the much-discussed influence of Dostoevsky on Nietzsche can be better understood by unraveling the specific nature of the translation L’esprit souterrain. An analysis shows that as a consequence of the adopted translation strategy, the character of the Underground Man, who in the Russian context functions as a philosophical-ideological type, becomes a purely psychological type. This is all the more important, since Nietzsche’s enthusiasm for Dostoevsky led to rereadings of Dostoevsky through a Nietzschean lens.