Russian impressions of the modernity: Dostoyevsky traveling through Europe

Abstract

In the present study, I analyze the non-fictional text written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) during his travels through Europe in 1862, Winter notes on summer impressions (1863) – work apparently unpretentious and that does not obey the formal rigor of any specific literary genre. At first and briefly, it matters to me highlight the origin of the word “modernity” in light of the etymological research of this term undertaken by the German theorist Hans Robert Jauss (1921-1997) and the conception elaborated by the French poet and critic Charles Baudelaire, especially in his poem À une passante. Subsequently, some of the main excerpts from Winter notes... regarding the physical descriptions of the cities will be commented to emphasize, mainly, the critical look with which Dostoyevsky viewed the transformations that were undergoing in Europe (notably the capitals Paris and London) during the second half of the nineteenth century.