Nationhood and Roots : Dostoyevsky and Weil on National Culture and Europe

Publication Type

Journal Article

Year of Publication

1998

Author

Plant, Stephen

Journal

Religion, State & Society

Volume

26

Pages

279-289

Language

English

Keywords

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor
Ignatieff, Michael
nationalism
roots (uprootedness)

Annotation

This article compares Dostoyevsky and Weil’s work on nationhood and roots. It begins with a brief discussion of Dostoyevsky’s views and then moves on to focus on Weil’s work in The Need for Roots. Plant concludes the article with a short presentation of Michael Ignatieff’s postulation of three types of nationalism: political, cultural and moral, arguing that Weil is a cultural nationalist while Dostoyevsky is both a cultural and moral nationalist.