Listening, Feeling, Judging

Dostoevsky and Law as Narrative Passage

Authors

Abstract

This essay proposes a theoretical-literary reflection on Law as a narrative practice, based on a hermeneutic reading of Fyodor Dostoevsky's work. Grounded in the “Law and Literature” approach, as developed by François Ost, Paul Ricœur, and Marcelo Cattoni, the text analyzes how Dostoevsky’s novels — especially Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and The Idiot — reveal ethical forms of judgment, responsibility, and listening to the other, which challenge the traditional normative model of justice. Narrative is understood as a legitimate field for the construction of justice, and judgment is conceived as an ethical and affective passage, rather than the mere automatic application of rules. In this sense, the chapter offers an original contribution to contemporary legal debate by proposing a sensitive listening to alterity and the valuing of language as a means of responsibility. From Dostoevsky’s perspective, Law is interpreted closer to an ethics of care than to punitive rationality.

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Author Biography

Lara Passini Vaz-Tostes, PUC MINAS/Pós-graduanda

Graduada em Direito pela Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), com conclusão em fevereiro de 2022. Foi indicada ao Prêmio Barão do Rio Branco (Edital 963/2022/SGE-UFMG) e ao Prêmio Messias Pereira Donato (Edital 818/2022/SGE-UFMG). Desde outubro de 2024, cursa pós-graduação lato sensu em Filosofia e Teoria do Direito pela PUC Minas, aprofundando os diálogos entre ética, linguagem e literatura. Escritora e pesquisadora independente, desenvolve projetos autorais voltados à representação de sujeitos neurodivergentes e à investigação estética da escuta, com ênfase em autores como Dostoiévski, Kafka e Paul Ricoeur. Tem textos aceitos para publicação em revistas acadêmicas e coletâneas literárias, articulando criação ficcional e reflexão filosófico-literária com foco na empatia, na alteridade e na permanência ética.

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Published

2025-10-15

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2025): Direitos fundamentais - Direito e Sustentabilidade

Section

Artigos

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