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For Dostoevsky's Underground Man, the problematic of the self is central, but the self per se escapes centrality in the act of questioning itself. In Heideggerian fashion, I propose to introduce the question of the self so that it might demonstrate its own decentering. The Underground Man's self-questioning arises from his self-doubts and leads to what Michel Foucault might call an archaeology of the self. By following the path of this discursive practice, which involves self-dividing — the subject from its foundations — without ever attaining division of self from itself, the Underground Man's identity will show itself in its diversity and dispersal. What will become evident is the impossibility of unification and hence contentment. All that remains are questions.

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-010-9612-6_9

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