Dostoevsky’s The Gambler

Svetlana Evdokimova

doi:10.5771/9781666945300

Summary

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Gambler is one of the most profound literary works to treat the phenomenon of gambling with a remarkable depth of psychological analysis and a wide-ranging cultural and philosophical exploration of obsessive behavior, from addictive gambling to erotic passion. This novel delves into the cultural, psychological, and philosophical issues surrounding games of chance such as temporality, freedom, rebellion, choice, uncertainty, determinism, and creativity. This is the first book in English dedicated to The Gambler. This volume considers the phenomenon of gambling from a broad interdisciplinary perspective, focusing not only on medical and psychological concepts of gambling as pathology, but also on the broader cultural, philosophical, religious, and aesthetic aspects of the problem. What triggers fascination with risk-taking and various aleatory activities? What are the relations between gambling, play, and creativity? Can gambling be seen as a form of social or existential rebellion and protest or even a quest for freedom? Scholars from a variety of fields, including psychiatry, psychology, philosophy, literary studies, and musicology, have contributed to this volume and analyzed Dostoevsky’s view of gambling as a fundamental problem of human existence, with implications in the realms of philosophy, religion, and aesthetics.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2024
ISBN-Print: 978-1-66694-529-4
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-4530-0
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 284
Product type: Edited Book

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. A Note on Transliterations and Translations No access
1. Is Life a Gamble? No access
2. Dostoevsky’s Literary Wager No access
3. Gambling, Play, and Creativity No access
4. The Gambler’s Gambles No access
5. Notes No access
6. Bibliography No access
1. 1. Dostoevsky’s Addiction to Gambling No access
  2. Addictive Aspects of Gambling No access
  3. Dostoevsky’s Secret to Gambling Success No access
  4. Childhood and Early Family Life No access
  5. Separation as Illness No access
  6. Reconciliation No access
  7. The Onset of Dostoevsky’s Gambling Addiction No access
  8. The Poet and the Artist No access
  9. Epilogue: On Winning and Losing No access
  10. Notes No access
  11. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Dostoevsky at Play No access
  2. The Problem of Points No access
  3. 1. Cognitive Biases No access
    2. Reinforcement Learning No access
    3. Pathological Gambling No access
  4. 1. The Ultimatum Game No access
    2. The Trust Game No access
    3. Meta Games No access
    4. Rebellion and Free Will No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
1. 1. Notes No access
  2. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Accidental Families and The Gambler No access
  2. Notes No access
  3. Bibliography No access
1. 1. Zero No access
  2. The Vortex of Nothingness No access
  3. The Revolt of “Zeros” No access
  4. Game Over No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
2. 1. Temporalities No access
  2. False Transcendence? No access
  3. Implacable Identities No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. Bibliography No access
3. 1. The Worth of a Human Being No access
  2. Knowledge of a Person No access
  3. Conclusion No access
  4. Notes No access
  5. Bibliography No access
4. 1. A Fragment of Heraclitus: The Heart of a Question No access
  2. Roulettenburg and the “Child’s Kingship” No access
  3. Dostoevsky’s “Russian Idea”: The Whole versus the Part No access
  4. The Play of Antinomies No access
  5. Before Everything Else: Identity and Nothingness No access
  6. Notes No access
  7. Bibliography No access
1. 1. Incompleteness, Uncertainty, and Risk No access
  2. A Tartar, a Vater, a Sugar-Boiler, and Apollo of the Belvedere No access
  3. Temporality and Potentiality No access
  4. Narrative and Its Discontents No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
2. 1. From Life to Art and Back Again No access
  2. The Four Constituent Parts of a Novel and of Life No access
  3. Between Worlds No access
  4. Storytelling: The Catalyst No access
  5. Notes No access
  6. Bibliography No access
3. 1. Notes No access
  2. Bibliography No access
Index No access Pages 277 - 280
About the Contributors No access Pages 281 - 284