Echoes from the Underground
Friedrich Nietzsche called Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky “the only psychologist from whom I have anything to learn.” Dostoevsky’s ability to encapsulate the darkest depths of the human psyche in his characters has had a profound impact on writers operating on the periphery of society. Through research on his writing style, biography, and a close reading of his novel Notes from the Underground I explore the impact of his most famous outcast, the Underground Man, on counterculture writers in America during the great subculture upsurge of the 1950s and 60s. Ken Kesey, Allen Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac employ both the universal themes expressed by the Underground Man as well as more specific stylistic and textual similarities. My research draws parallels among these three writers with respect to their literary works as well as the impact of both their personal lives and the worlds they inhabit. The paper argues that Dostoevsky has had a profound influence on the geography of the Underground and that this literary topos has had an impact on the writers who continue to inhabit that space.
(Adapted from http://www.umt.edu/ugresearch/umcur/sample_abstracts.php)