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 sources—medical reports, social treatises, legal codes, newspaper articles, fiction, private documents left by suicides—Irina Paperno describes the search for the meaning of suicide. Paperno focuses on Russia of the 1860s–1880s, when suicide was at the center of public attention.
Published also in the following translations:
Самоубийство как культурный институт
Publication Date: 1999
陀思妥耶夫斯基论作为文化机制的俄国自杀问题
Publication Date: 2011
Dostoyevski Rusya’sında Kültürel Bir Kurum Olarak İntihar
Publication Date: July 12, 2024