• Russian Language and Literature
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• no.60
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• pp.135-160
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• 2018

This paper is focused on the sympathy in Dostoevsky's and Tolstoy's poetics. For Dostoevsky, sympathy is based on the social dimension, which is connected with his experience. Though the writer may have thought of the many prisoners he met in Siberian as his own and others, he saw in them the 'Marey' that he had met in his childhood, and the spirituality that lies within Marey is no different from his faith. In other words, Dostoevsky discovered that they also have faith in common and that it is the main code of understanding them and a link that can be one with them. It differs from the intellectuals of the time in which the writer lived, in order to approach the people, in the sense of reason, logic, or any justification. For Tolstoy, on the other hand, sympathy can be considered in terms of morality and practice. Tolstoy's sympathy extends from the individual to the social level, whereas Dostoevsky's sympathy moves from the social dimension to the individual dimension. Through his personal experience and enlightenment, he emphasizes sympathy in the process of practicing what he realizes in society. In other words, after sympathy, he tried to practice his sympathy and realization. It was not for the Russian people or the Slavs, but for the whole human race. In this sense, Tolstoy tried to overcome the partiality of empathy and tried to obtain universality of sympathy. In particular, Tolstoy emphasizes that patriotism is an example of bias in empathy and should be guarded.

• Russian Language and Literature
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• no.65
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• pp.109-128
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• 2019

The purpose of this paper is to compare the empathy of Dostoevsky 's novel 『Idiot』 and Tolstoy' s novel 『Resurrection』. The empathy can be seen not only in the emotional dimension, but also in the cognitive and the will dimension. Myshkin was emotional, lacking reflection and moral standards. He sympathized with almost all characters, but his empathy could not stop heroine's death. On the other hand, the empathy of Nekhliudov and Katiusha is not limited to the relationship of two people and it is gradually expanded by sympathy with others. His empathy develops with compassion and love for others through reflection on oneself. Thus, while the empathy of Myshkin is a passive level of empathy, Nekhliudov's empathy is an active level of empathy

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.34
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• pp.115-146
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• 2014

Cyclical stories on Caucasus and Sebastopol Sketches, including War and Peace, have generally been said as masterpieces dealing with the theme of war in Leo Tolstoy's literature. Among them, it is no doubt that War and Peace is absolutely the best one describing the grand panorama of people's lives and war itself. The plot of this novel consists of the so-called Napoleonic War of 1812 and of diverse lives both from the upper class and lower class, more essentially it dramatically presents how these pictures made all literary participants experienced their destiny and lives. Throughout these texts, war, including of its cause and effects and participants, re-considers and re-evaluates all of each features. The most important themes in War and Peace is war itself as the novel's title says. Rather than a just backdrop to the novel, the war plays a significant role in providing the reader with various realistic, philosophic, moral and existentialist perspectives. Moreover, War and Peace for the writer shows contradictory two views about war; he severally criticizes the Napoleonic war of 1812 in the sense that it violets people's reason and nature. At the same time, however, Tolstoy considers that the war as liberation is justified and necessary for guarding people's nation, otechestvo in Russian. What the writer attempts to show from this novel, however, goes beyond the simple descriptions which were done above. Leo Tolstoy successfully offers and what he tries to show in the long run is that how people go through all kinds of sufferings and hardship and their spiritual resurrection, thereby leading to the vital force making history. For the writer, the essential force that makes history and people's lives is not heroic military leader like Napoleon, but those common people. And the novel serves a wonderful prelude expecting the Decembrist revolt in 1825, because all of the vital and active streams that Tolstoy emphasizes turn out true in Russian history.