About the author:
Madeleine Brossier, Professor Assistant, Jean Moulin University Lyon III, 1c avenue des Freres Lumiere, cs 78242, 69372, Lyon, cedex 08.
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Abstract:
The article examines the influence of Notes from Underground by F.M. Dostoevsky on the novel Darkness by Ph. Jaccottet. Evidence of this influence is provided by both Jacotte’s statements about Russia, Dostoevsky and, in particular, Notes from Underground, as well as the images and allusions in the novel itself. The main point of similarity between the heroes of Darkness and Dostoevsky’s underground man is nihilism. In the mind of both th underground man and the teacher from the novel Darkness, metaphysical nihilism, fueled by a thirst for beauty and disappointment with reality, leads to inaction, but Jacottet also shows a way out of the nihilistic vicious circle in the image of a student who does not accept the teacher’s nihilism.