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I am not a professional philosopher. Can you please explain this sentence or the idea that a writer or an artist is locked in an exteriorless passion? It is from Julia Kristeva's Black Sun in relation to Dostoevsky. The context is:

Dostoyevsky is also conscious of the aesthetic effect of being locked in an exterior-less passion with the risk of a deathly as well as joyful closure through imaginary self-consumption, through the tyranny of the beautiful; that is perhaps what prompts him to cling violently to his religion and its principle-forgiveness.

It is the most difficult for me to understand that passion is exteriorless - why if the artist has realised themselves by creating a novel or any other creative ideal as the result of forgiveness?

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  • Ooff thats really turgid prose. Especially if you're not a native English speaker. I guess you could take "exteriorless" as boundless or endless or some such. [You may get more help on the English SE for this I think]
    – Rushi
    Commented Jul 14 at 14:02
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    I am not struggling with understanding the meaning of words. I do understand what exteriorless means - I would like to understand the philosophical concept lying behind that. It is my understanding that once the ideal is created by an artist like Dostoevsky, it can dominate the artist. But I need more specifics.
    – Elena Yellow
    Commented Jul 14 at 15:13
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    Consider looking in to Nonduality.
    – Scott Rowe
    Commented Jul 14 at 22:57
  • it's difficult out of context, but doesn't christianity - and dostoevsky was a chrisrtian iirc - ask for forgiveness for self love, as a sin? so he risks annihilation in his individuality, and that's why he seeks god?
    – user71399
    Commented Jul 15 at 14:39

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Lit-Crit is such a blast…

I'd really need to see this in its larger context (at least a couple of paragraphs surrounding), but I'll suggest that Kristiva is saying that Dostoyevsky is aware that the artistic pursuit of beauty (particularly in writing) is a completely internal activity: a passion that pulls the author inward into the self-enclosed space of the mind. One might imagine Dostoyevsky siting at his writing table, blankly staring off into space as characters and scenes play themselves out in his head, working towards that perfect imagined vision that he can transfer to paper. She then suggests that religion is what connects Dostoyevsky back to the exterior world, though I can't tell from this passage why she thinks 'forgiveness' is the operant principle here.

So exteriorless passion merely means a passion that is (and can only be) satisfied in the imaginal realm of thought and inner sight, where the outer world is only a nuisance and distraction.

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  • Thank you. I will certainly give you a context. Can I attach a link to the book? Will it be suitable and work for you? In turn, my understanding is that the fact of creating of an ideal or image (like Dostoyevsky does) is how aesthetic forgiveness works. It is the final stage where the writer is caught in a trap since the ideal is created but it does not satisfy him. Such an ideal is a kind of departure from moral norms and his own inner world. I assume that this world is a mixture of devil and god so that the writer has to come back to the traditional norms and values.
    – Elena Yellow
    Commented Jul 14 at 20:00
  • @ElenaYellow: You can certainly link the book for general interest, if you like, but it's not necessary to answer the question. I'd just need the surrounding paragraphs to orient the argument. Honestly though, your explanation of the 'forgiveness' aspect seems perfectly credible, and I doubt I could add anything substantive to it. So no worries…
    – Ted Wrigley
    Commented Jul 14 at 21:10
  • Sounds like computer programming to me. Serving people's needs is what connects me back to the exterior world.
    – Scott Rowe
    Commented Jul 14 at 21:14
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    @ScottRowe: I've always felt that programming and maths are particular kinds of language arts, so I can see how the same would apply.
    – Ted Wrigley
    Commented Jul 14 at 21:21
  • The most close context is page 214. Please pay attention to the page 205/206. underworldsblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/…
    – Elena Yellow
    Commented Jul 15 at 9:01

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