Ivan Karamazov and the religious literature of medieval Rus'.

This article explores the role of translation of medieval and religious literature in Fedor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. In the chapters "Rebellion" and "The Grand Inquisitor", Ivan Karamazov weaves two hagiographies, an apocryphal legend, and a passage from the Psalms used in the liturgy into the fabric of his argumentation with his brother Alesha. Ivan would have read most of these works in Church Slavonic, yet he quotes them in his own, contemporary Russian language. This study shows that, whereas Ivan's references to Rus'ian literature are permeated by inaccurate assumptions current at his time, many of his misrepresentations are deliberate. Rather than leaning on careful readings of his sources, Ivan's transpositions are an exercise in creative freedom that reveals the tension between his intellectual and religious convictions, and challenges the limits of text-centred definitions of translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]