Dostoevsky's Hamlet in Nineteenth-Century Russia: The Paradox of Subjectivity

Dostoevsky uses Hamlet to address some of the most important problems in Russian culture in the second half of the 19th century. Approaching Dostoevsky's engagement with Shakespeare through a focus on his novel, Demons, Petra Bjelica considers the figure of Hamlet as it connects to Russian national identity, spirituality and cultural migration.

Bjelica argues that Russian Hamletism is a perfect example of how a literary phenomenon forms through a specific culture. She reads Dostoevsky's use ...