Biographical "foundations" of Dostoevsky's pre and post Siberian fiction

Yup! That's my research is all about. Not only that he is my one of my favorite authors that I chose him as my subject in my school-research, but there is something in this author that made. I know a lot of members here love him as a 20th century author so perhaps you all will be willing to help me with this. A little help will be much appreciated. :)
What do you think are the prevalent themes of his works (both pre and post Siberian fiction) that actually recurs in his life as well?
How does his pre-Siberian works differ from his after-imprisonment fictions?
Any suggestions on how should I start the process itself? Thanks
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Originally Posted by eyemaker

What do you think are the prevalent themes of his works (both pre and post Siberian fiction) that actually recurs in his life as well?
How does his pre-Siberian works differ from his after-imprisonment fictions?
Any suggestions on how should I start the process itself? Thanks
---eye

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His pre Siberian works are Poor Folks and short story The Double.
If you have read them (which I am sure you did) then you maybe noticed despair, poorness and misery of those who lived in big crowded dirty towns, without appropriate home or job. Like he was trying to explain how world is ugly and cruel and there is hardly a hope for normal humans to live some sort of normal life.

Biggest change in his life which also had a huge impact on his opus is his conversion to a great Christian, which brings hope, love and belief between mens and Gods help to humans. He often spokes about a resurrection of a soul, which also happened to himself.

Many things from his life affected directly on his works - epilepsy (Myskhin, Smerdyakov), gambling (The Gambler), getting almost executed (The idiot episode), whole novel about his life in Siberia, effects of his life in Switzerland (mostly in Idiot - I wrote a lot about that on Forum Book Club - Book of the month), opinion about socialists and nihilists and confrontation with some Russian ''great'' writers and reviewers (Demons)...

I would recommend checking your city's university/city libraries for a gem of a book called "Tyrant and Victim in Dostoevsky" (Gary Cox, 1984, Slavica Publishers). Cox gives a great overview of hierarchy-related themes throughout Dostoevsky's work, focussing particularly on the highly interesting theme of doubling:

- internal doubling (Golyadkin; Ivan Karamazov-his devil)
- external doubling (Raskolnikov-Svidrigailov)
- intertextual doubling (Zossima-Tikhon; Dimitry Karamazov-Rozoghin)
- relationship doubling (Zossima->Alyosha, Alyosha->Krasotkin and the boys)

But the main, central theme of Cox's study is that of power inversion: cases in which the weak overcome the strong, and when the strong bow (often literally) to the weak.

Though Cox treats Dostoevsky's ouvre as a whole, not giving particular emphasis to the time periods in which works were written, his treatment of themes should, I think, help you in case you're looking for ideas. It's a great, easy-to-read book and at 100 pages, it's short, too!

thank you so much with those helpful response baz and shatov. Those ideas will help me really in my further analysis of his works. Currently i've been involving into a lot of research on which fiction writings to consider from both pre and post Siberian writings. I can't include all. So, my choices so far, from pre-Siberian years "Poor Folk" and "The Double" and from his Post-Siberian works, "The Idiot", "C and P" and "The BK". I still am into a lot of thinking until now. Please help me in choosing the "appropriate" work to include. I haven't yet read all of his fiction writings but I am on the process of doing so.

Thank you soo much!


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Dostoevsky's pre-Siberian work is not one-dimensional but it is limited. His first novel Poor Folk contains two major characters, and his second work The Double contains two-in-one and another character. His first major work post-Siberian was The Insulted And Injured. The difference is astounding. His work post-Siberian had become multi-dimensional, and he introduced and handled a number of characters not just two. And he brought a number of characters to life and made them full and alive and believable. The Insulted And Injured is far from being Dostoevsky's best novel, but it is a seminal work. Even though Poor Folk and The Double contain some philosophical ideas, it wasn't until The Insulted And Injured that Dostoevsky "came into his own."