PT134.S4.P4.Q20 > Analytics

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During Dostoyevsky's time there were two significant and opposing directions in Russian literary criticism. ███ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███ █████ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ███ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███ ███ █ █████ ██ █████ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ █████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███

Background Positions · 1. High art; 2. radical

One view of art was that it was above the everyday. Another view of art was that it had to be politically useful.

Dostoyevsky's View · Fantasy and reality are not in principle distinct (contra radical view)

Not sure what this means, but I suspect this may be the main point and the rest of the passage will flesh this out.

Radical View · Art must depict reality as is

Critique · "Reality" is subjective

Reality is shaped by subjective experience. The writer's job is to blend reality and fantasy.

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Radical View · Art must serve politics

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Critique · Art must stand or fall on its own merits

Literature has to be well written.

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Radical View · Art must be useful

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Critique · How can we know what will be useful?

It's not possible to predict in what ways art may be useful.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Spotlight

20.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

The author focuses on presenting Dostoyevsky’s view of art. In contrast to a view that art should stand high above reality and a view that art should be useful, Dostoyevsky took a third view. He believed that art should “explode the boundaries of the so-called real world.”

By drawing on ████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ███ █ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ ███████████

The passage doesn’t indicate that Dostoyevsky’s view drew on elements of two opposing strains of criticism. He had a third view, but there’s no reason to think it was based on the other two views or that its development was influenced by the other two views.

In opposition to ███ █████ ██ ███ ███ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ████████

Dostoyevsky did not believe that literature should be removed from reality.

Dostoyevsky's indictment of ███ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████

The author never indicates that Dostoyevsky’s criticism of the radical Russian critics rested “solely” on his objection to the idea that literature should be useful. He also criticized the idea that reality should be depicted “as it is.”

In his critical █████████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ████████

Dostoyevsky did not believe a concern with depicting reality was a narrow constraint. He disagreed with critics regarding what was part of reality, but this doesn’t imply that he thought it would be constraining for artists to depict reality. In addition, (D) doesn’t capture the passage’s discussion of Dostoyevsky’s view on the requirement that art be “useful” to people and society.

Dostoyevsky's position on ██████████ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ███████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ██ █ ████████ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ██ ████

This best captures the main point, because the passage focuses on showing how Dostoyevsky’s view of literature was different from the view of radical critics. Unlike the critics, Dostoyevsky believed reality could encompass the fantastic, and that art does not need to be “useful” to society.

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