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book1859

Oblomov

Disciplines:
psychology
fiction
literature/russian literature
social criticism

Summary

Ivan Goncharov's 1859 Russian novel about Ilya Oblomov — a Russian nobleman so overcome by inertia that he cannot bring himself to get out of bed — which became the defining literary treatment of paralysis, procrastination, and the failure to engage with life.

Core Contribution

Created Oblomovism as the cultural term for a specific psychological condition — the person of intelligence and sensitivity who cannot translate inner potential into outer action, paralyzed by contemplation, comfort, and the gap between aspiration and effort.

Historical Influences

Ivan Goncharov

Intellectual Lineage

Russian Realist Literature19th-Century Social NovelCharacter Study Tradition

Allied Works

Dead SoulsThe Death of Ivan Ilyich The Stranger

Contemporaries & Peers

Dead SoulsFathers and SonsCrime and Punishment

Minds Influenced

Russian literature traditionPsychological fictionProcrastination cultural discourse

Intellectual Posterity

OblomovismOblomov Russian literary psychology of inertia

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Oblomov

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