Dostoevsky in the Digital Age

Session Submission Type: Panel

Affiliate Organization: North American Dostoevsky Society

Brief Description

The three papers on this panel consider aspects of studying and teaching Dostoevsky in the global techno-dystopia in which we find ourselves. Although Dostoevsky’s works are very clear in their suspicion of the technologies of modernity, our current age’s impulse towards the convenience of the digital and the limitless communication and ubiquitous surveillance cultures that it has enabled have created scenarios beyond Dostoevsky’s wildest nightmares. Lindsay Ceballos’s paper centers disinformation in an investigation of the way Dostoevsky is presented through debates around Dostoevsky’s worldview in the context of recent geopolitical events among Wikipedia editors and their reflection in editorial changes on the site. Katherine Bowers and Kate Holland use digital humanities methods to consider Dostoevsky’s narrators, considering the pros and cons of computational methods for doing close analysis of literary texts. Chloë Kitzinger’s paper examines Notes from Underground as a revealing lens on the pseudo-language of “AI,” and “AI” (in turn) as a lens on the narrowness of Dostoevsky’s Christian humanism. All three papers provide unique perspectives on the way digital technologies might shape our understanding of Dostoevsky’s texts in new ways, but also the way we as Dostoevsky scholars of the digital age might respond to these changes.

Sub Unit

• Literature: 19th Century

Chair

• Robin Feuer Miller, Brandeis U

Papers

• On the Limits of Polyphony: Dostoevsky on English and Russian Wikipedia - Lindsay Marie Ceballos, Lafayette College

• Ciphering Dostoevsky: Using Computers to Compare Novelistic Narrators - Katherine Bowers, U of British Columbia (Canada); Kate Rowan Holland, U of Toronto (Canada)

• Cassandras of the Underground: Dostoevsky against 'AI' - Chloe Kitzinger, Columbia U

Discussant

• Lynn E. Patyk, Dartmouth College