Dostoyevsky, bernanos, and knowing joy as the unknown

Abstract

In her article “Dostoyevsky, Bernanos, and Knowing Joy as the Unknown” Ruth Karin Lévai analyzes the concept of joy in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Georges Bernanos’s The Diary of a Country Priest. Lévai follows five main aspects of the experience of joy common to the characters of both novels: 1) joy as prerequisite to true freedom, 2) joy as risk, 3) joy as the ability to love, 4) joy as the ability to give and receive prosaic gifts, and 5) joy as community. Lévai argues that in both works joy is portrayed as a starting point rather than a destination and that it grows out of knowledge rather than circumstance. Further, she posits that Dostoyevsky’s and Bernanos’s understanding of joy was shaped by their Christian faith.