Dostoevsky and the Epileptic Mode of Being

This book explores the specific implications of epilepsy in each of the Fyodor Dostoevsky's major post-Siberian novels. It discusses Mikhail Bakhtin's idea of polyphony to demonstrate the ways in which different historical and literary references to epilepsy are amalgamated in Dostoevsky's works. Introduction 1. The Egoism of Suffering': Schiller with Sade 2. Petersburg and the Deaf and Dumb Spirit 3. The Image without an Image: The Guillotine and Holbein's Dead Christ 4. The Will to Epilepsy: Suicide, Writing, and Modernity 5. The Karamazovs' Other History: Childhood, Violence, and the Shriekers 6. Conclusion: Death Sentences: Infinite Postponement