THE SEARCH FOR YOUTH AND BEAUTY: DOSTOEVSKY'S ANALISIS OF POLITICAL RADICALIZATION

Abstract

The question of how and why young people become radicalized is a dominant theme pervading all of Dostoevsky’s major writings. It might be argued that Demons gives consummate expression to what the consequences of radicalization are once it has taken place, but if one is seeking to understand why and how radicalization happens within the mind and spirit of a young person, one should look to Dostoevsky’s next novel, The Adolescent. In this novel, Arkady’s quest for his father is ultimately a quest for an order reflective of “seemliness.”