Incest and the Limits of Family in the Nineteenth-Century Russian Novel

• In Event: Family Novel Variations: Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy

Abstract

In “I’m in Love with My Brother,” Anna Berman explores the way Russian authors avoided the sibling incest obsession of the English, while still honoring the intense power of the first-family bond. Focusing on the novelistic families of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, the paper examines the use the sibling bond as a model for romantic relations and the pattern of falling in love with one who is “like” kin, tracing their roots in the wider European tradition.

Author

• Anna A. Berman, McGill U (Canada)