Dostoevsky And Lu Xun:a Study On The Construction Of Spiritual Structure

Both Dostoyevsky and Lu Xun are master writers,deep thinkers, and genius beyond their own ages. Before good understanding of their thoughts and works is formed the thorough study of the construction of their spiritual structures must be made. The thesis makes the spiritual structures of Dostoyevsky and Lu Xun as main subject, and mainly focuses on Dostoyevsky’s"10years in the House of the Dead"(1850’s) and Lu Xun’s "10years of Silence"(1909-1918). Through the aspects of personal life experiences and social political misfortunes the thesis analyzes the decisive impact laid by the two "10years" on the construction of the two master writers spiritual structure and discusses the fundamental characteristics of their spiritual structures. With the similar personal experiences and under the similar historical and cultural circumstances, two great writers had made different choices in their real lives, it clearly shows the difference on the deep cultural psychology between Russian and China.The thesis consists of six parts, the part of Introduction mainly reviews the existing materials of comparative study on Dostoyevsky and Lu Xun. Influenced by the1980’s political environment the comparative study at that time attach too much importance on the social class and ideology and always made simple value judgment about two master writers according to political standards. However, the recent years’ study always focus on the forms and themes of their works."Part1. Construction of Spiritual Structures of Dostoyevsky and Lu Xun".Dostoyevsky renounced his former belief of humanitarianism-based utopian socialism and finally has converted to a special "three in one" belief, which had made the belief to Christian God as its spiritual pillars, Russian nation as realistic strong point and the pursuit of perfection of individual morality and harmonious society as ultimate aim, and it has derived from the derived from the mixture of Orthodox Eastern Church, nationalism and the mass basis thought."Part2. Personal Experiences of Two Master Writers." This part has compared and analyzed two master writers’ personal experiences, it points out that although they lived in different countries of different eras they had several things in common in their personal life experiences:both of them suffered family misfortune when they were young; both of them quitted their military and medical professions respectively to start their literature career; both of them had10-year darkest period in personal life, the former is known as "10years in the House of the Dead" and the latter "10years of Silence"; both of them weathered the trials of political accidents and illness. And the "10years in the House of the Dead" and "10years of Silence" have respectively strongly influenced the construction of their spiritual structures."Part3. Social and Political Environment."This part discusses the social and political environments of Russia and China at the two great writers’ time respectively and draws the conclusion that the political accidents they encountered had changed their life courses and greatly affected the construction of their spiritual structures."Part4. Western or Tradition?" As the representatives of the intellectuals in their own countries Dostoyevsky and Lu Xun had shown different attitudes when encountering the Western civilization, they had been yearning as well as lost and finally chosen the different ways in the similar historical and cultural contexts of two countries. Dostoyevsky placed his hope on achieving individual moral perfection and saving man’s soul in religious way, but Lu Xun paid more attention to the affairs of the reality, such as educating people, saving the country and enlightening the popular thought. As the great thinkers who concerned the society and era they lived, their spiritual structure had been stamped with the brand of the times and the choices they had made also reflected the differences in the core of cultural psychology of Russian and Chinese nations."Conclusion." Social environment and individual experiences have greatly influenced the construction of spiritual structures of Dostoyevsky and Lu Xun, and like these two most outstanding figures the other Russian and Chinese intellectuals had made different choices when they were in the similar historical and cultural contexts, they represented the conscience as Humanistic Intellectuals at their time.