Comparing the Cultural and Social Critiques of Notes from Underground a

Cultural and Social Critiques of Notes from Underground and undetectable Man It is understanding oneself and the power structures of society that helps one gain authenticity, and ultimately.. power. Notes from Underground and camouflaged Man offer a wide variety of social critiques. While some critiques are explicit inside the plot, others are implicit in statements of characters and the transaction between two or more characters. Many of the ideas of social critique in Notes from Underground have direct parallels or antitheses in Invisible Man. Most--if not all--of the critiques transcend the time, location, and historical context in which they occur. The greatest value that the critiques in the two texts have to offer is that they deal with the unalterable human condition. Notes from Underground and Invisible Man offer a variety social critiques, most prominently in nationalism and cultural pride, an exclusive community versus an inclusive community, and the power structures wit hin society. Nationalism is one of the main targets of the critique in Notes from Underground. The underground mans highly self-centered personality has a direct parallel in the ideas he has close his realm. He says, We, in Russia, have no fools that is well known. That is what distinguishes us from foreign lands (Dostoevsky 40). Such nationalistic propaganda was intended for all Russians to consider and evaluate. At the time the unfermented was written, Western civilization seemed to be extending its influence everywhere. As Dr. Lutomski pointed out in lecture, this caused many to adopt an isolationist philosophy, believing that the only way a country can be pure to its own citizens is to cut itself off from the outside world. Dostoevsky is presenti... ...s within a society must be able to channel that smorgasbord into a feeling of unity that makes all of the individuals in all of the cultures feel like they belong to the indivisible whole. When one has found an entire group of citizenry to identify with, one can transcend to a new level of self-understanding. And it is understanding oneself and the power structures of society that helps one gain authenticity, and ultimately power. Works CitedBakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics. Ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson. Introd. by Wayne C. Booth. Theory and History of Literature. Minneapolis U. of Minnesota Pr., 1984. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. (Library Ed.). New York Random House, Inc. 1994Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Notes from Underground A New Translation, Backgrounds and Sources, Responses, Criticism. Norton Critical Edition. New York Norton, 1989.