One can only imagine the mixed emotions encountered during a seismic lurch to stardom like that of Bob Dylan. There were four Beatles to quarter a load, and unlike Elvis Presley, who suffered adversities of his own, Dylan became famous not just as a pop star but as a howling wind of sociopolitical upheaval: no singular performer so succinctly typified the 1960s’ countercultural movement.
It could be argued that Dylan’s experience and cultural impact echoed those of the Russian literary legend Fyodor Dostoevsky a century prior. In addition to his literary prowess, Dostoevsky was a philosopher, devout Orthodox Christian and political activist who believed in unifying his faith with socialist ideals. His complex reasoning, however, dictated that, unwatched, socialism could lead to despotism.
In the political climate of 19th-century Russia, Dostoevsky found himself in a spot of bother on more than one occasion. In 1846, following a period of indulgent capitalism as a trained engineer in St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky published his first novel, Poor Folk, a prying cross-examination of the social order. Socialist views suggested in these pages were confirmed in 1849 when the author was arrested for his membership in the literary group The Petrashevsky Circle.
Facing persecution as a political dissident, Dostoevsky endured the unimaginable hardships of a Siberian prison camp for four years before entering compulsory military service in exile for a further six.
Unlike many of his fellow prisoners, Dostoevsky survived, with freedom finally restored in 1954. Reclaiming his life, Dostoevsky married and devoted himself to literature, enjoying a prolific spell of timeless novels, including Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment and his dense swan song, The Brothers Karamazov.
Ranking Dostoevsky second to William Shakespeare as a literary force, Sigmund Freud hailed The Brothers Karamazov as “the most magnificent novel ever written” in the 1928 psychological analytical paper, Dostoevsky and Parricide.
Garnering ardent support across Europe, Dostoevsky’s literary achievements allowed him to rise above past tribulations. His various novels and essays were universally acclaimed for their profound insights into the human condition, earning admiration from literary luminaries such as James Joyce and Ernest Hemingway.
With context in place, it’s time to call in Dylan for his intriguing parallels. In an excerpt from his 2004 memoir Chronicles: Volume One, the troubadour compared his life struggles to those of the late Russian novelist.
“Dostoevsky, too, had lived a dismal and hard life,” Dylan wrote. “The czar sent him to a prison camp in Siberia in 1849. Dostoevsky was accused of writing socialist propaganda. He was eventually pardoned and wrote stories to ward off his creditors. Just like in the early ’70s, I wrote albums to ward off mine.”
Undoubtably, Dylan endured the hardship of media scrutiny as a protest singer and shaking fists at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, but it’s perhaps difficult to equate his years of unparalleled success and veneration to Dostoevsky’s spent in shackles, disease and delirium. All the same, through the 1960s, Dylan faced criticism for political outcry and grappled with the harsh realities of fame.
Though Dylan’s experiences in the 1960s were ecstatic compared to Dostoevsky’s in the 1850s, both sought financial remedy through artistic output. Following a period of critical disinterest in the late ’60s and early ’70s, Dylan eventually bounced back with Planet Waves, Blood on the Tracks and Desire.
Whilst not entirely analogous to Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, this trio of albums served a similar purpose on a more personal level. Holistically, only time will tell how Dylan’s cultural impact squares up to that of Dostoevsky. One can only suspect that Dylan’s sociopolitical convictions will be outweighed by his overbearing influence as a creative innovator.
Listen to Bob Dylan’s 1964 song ‘Ballad of Hollis Brown’ below. Parallels can most certainly be drawn between this dismal early masterpiece and Dostoevsky’s work.
