Russian Hedgehog

[torturedsyntax]

Hello to you all- I delight in your existence! Every day I ask myself if literature is dead, and the book I'm writing a mere anachronism. This site is most encouraging.
If anyone here is familiar with Russian folktales and/or symbolism, I implore you to help me with a question that's nibbling away at my cerebral functions:
What is the symbolism of the hedgehog in 19th C Russian literature? In the novel I'm writing about, Dostoevsky's The Idiot, Aglaya sends a hedgehog to Prince Myshkin as a gift. In the book we are told that sometimes a hedgehog is just a hedgehog- but surely there's more to it than that...?
Gratefully-

[JCamilo]

Maybe that have nothing to do with folklore, but Schopenhauer used the hedgehog as form of parable (Hedgehog dilemma).

[mal4mac]

Maybe that have nothing to do with folklore, but Schopenhauer used the hedgehog as form of parable (Hedgehog dilemma).

Wasn't that porcupines? Maybe you used a different translation :) The metaphor would work with hedgehogs... Isaiah Berlin used another metaphor in his essay "The Hedgehog and the Fox". I can't remember if either drew on Russian folklore, or Dostoevsky, but both writers are superb and should give your essay some zing!

[JCamilo]

Could be, in portuguese, porcupines and hedgehog are often translated to the same words (Ouriço or porco-espinho), anyways, the metaphor is better know as hedgehog and that is probally the idea in the book.

[nightwica]

Hi there! I know it's been a while, but... have you reached anything? I am trying to write an essay on the topic of the hedgehog, also based on the Idiot and also on Berlin's philosophy. It would be awesome to share ideas :) Please contact me on wica93 at gmail dot com address :) All the best, hope you still read this