DISCUSSION: The critics from lines 3-4 are never mentioned again, so we have to base our answers on Dostoyevsky’s opinions. While Dostoyevsky did use fantasy, lines 10-12 show that he was a realist. He wouldn’t have liked the idea of standing above the present and mundane reality.
Note that the critics from lines 3-4 never mention fantasy. Standing above the present doesn’t necessarily refer to fantasy. It could refer, for example, to only writing heroic descriptions of important, real events from Russia’s history.
___________
- The critics from lines 3-4 never said anything about the fantastic. They said art should stand above the present. Those aren’t necessarily the same thing.
- Dostoyevsky does think that reality is more than just the everyday. But line 10 makes clear that Dostoyevsky was a realist. He didn’t think art should stand above reality.
- CORRECT. Lines 10-12 support this. Even though Dostoyevsky used fantasy, he thought literature must be grounded in reality.
- Lines 3-4 never mention fantasy. So we have no idea whether or not the idealist critics made such a distinction.
- This describes the view of the critics from lines 5-9. We’re talking about the critics from lines 3-4.
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Fred Little says
Lines 13-14 state, “for Dostoyevsky there was no distinction in principle between fantasy and reality”. Wouldn’t that imply that he viewed the art above everyday camp as necessarily being based in reality?