num_pages: 232
description: Dostoevskyâ€™s Russian chauvinism and anti-Semitism have long posed problems for his readers and critics. How could the author of The Brothers Karamazov also be the source of the slurs against Jews in Diary of a Writer ? And where is the celebrated Christian humanist in the nationalist outbursts of The Idiot ? These enigmasâ€”the coexistence of humanism and hatred, faith and doubtâ€”are linked, Susan McReynolds tells us inÂ  Redemption and the Merchant God . Her book analyzes Dostoevskyâ€™s novels and Diary to show how the authorâ€™s anxieties about Christianity can help solve the riddle of his anti-Semitism as well as that of his Russian messianism. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  McReynoldsâ€™ reading demonstrates Dostoevsky suffered from a profound discomfort with the crucifixion as a vehicle for redemption. Through his work, she traces this ambivalence to certain beliefs and values that Dostoevsky held consistently throughout his life. And she reveals how this persistent ambivalence about the crucifixion led Dostoevsky to project what he didnâ€™t like about Christianity onto the Jewsâ€”and to invest those aspects of the crucifixion that he could approve with the â€œRussian idea.â€ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  A radical rereading of one of the Western canonâ€™s most revered and perplexing authors, McReynoldsâ€™ book is also a major reconfiguring of Dostoevskyâ€™s intellectual biography and a significant contribution to literary and cultural studies.
language: English
title: Redemption and the Merchant God: Dostoevsky's Economy of Salvation and Antisemitism
titlecomplete: Redemption and the Merchant God: Dostoevsky's Economy of Salvation and Antisemitism (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory)
ratings_count: 1
publisher: Northwestern University Press