General Introduction
– Where’s Grubbs?
– Tornados in Kansas
– Pronouncing Karamazov
– Translations
Historicize!
– Dostoevsky’s last novel
– Biographical information
– Connections to previous work
The Brothers
– Alyosha: The Christian
– Ivan: The Intellectual
– Dmitri: The Walking Urge
– Smerdyakov: The Lackey
The Grand Inquisitor vs. Father Zosima
– Rebellion
– Ivan’s maltheism
– Jesus comes back to 16th-century Spain
– Love and power
– Response to Utilitarianism
– Father Zosima lives and speaks
The Children
– Baby Ivan
– Dmitri’s trail of carnage
– Our dog argument
– The cruelty and wonder of children
Miracles and Knowability
– Competing ideologies
– What a narrator
– Central ambiguity
– Can you believe Ivan believing Smerdyakov?
What You Need to Understand It
– A basic understanding of Orthodoxy
– Knowledge of Utilitarianism
– Robin Feuer Miller
Cultural Echoes
– Religious rebels
– Tyler Durden
– American Psycho