Suicide as a Cultural Institution in Dostoevsky's Russia

In the popular and scientific imagination, suicide has always been an enigmatic act that defies, and yet demands, explanation. Throughout the centuries, philosophers and writers, journalists and scientists have attempted to endow this act with meaning. In the nineteenth century, and especially in Russia, suicide became the focus for discussion of such issues as the immortality of the soul, free will and determinism, the physical and the spiritual, the individual and the social. Analyzing a variety of sourcesmedical reports, social treatises, legal codes, newspaper articles, fiction, private documents left by suicidesIrina Paperno describes the search for the meaning of suicide. Paperno focuses on Russia of the 1860s1880s, when suicide was at the center of public attention.