Dostoevsky’s "Crime and Punishment" : : A Reader’s Guide / / Deborah A. Martinsen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Academic Studies Press Complete eBook-Package 2022
• VerfasserIn: Martinsen, Deborah A.,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston, MA : : Academic Studies Press, , [2022]; ©2022
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Language: English
• Series: Cultural Syllabus
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (134 p.)

Crime and Punishment: A Reader’s Guide focuses on narrative strategy, psychology, and ideology. Martinsen demonstrates how Dostoevsky first plunges the reader into Raskolnikov’s fevered brain, creating sympathy for him, and she explains why most readers root for him to get away from the scene of the crime. Dostoevsky subsequently provides outsider perspectives on Raskolnikov’s thinking, effecting a conversion in reader sympathy. By examining the multiple justifications for murder Raskolnikov gives as he confesses to Sonya, Dostoevsky debunks rationality-based theories. Finally, the question of why Raskolnikov and others, including the reader, focus on the murder of the pawnbroker and forget the unintended murder of Lizaveta reveals a narrative strategy based on shame and guilt.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- CHAPTER 1. Historical Introduction: Dostoevsky and Russia -- CHAPTER 2. Overview -- CHAPTER 3. Parts 1 and 2: Getting Away with Murder -- CHAPTER 4. Parts 3 to 5: In and Out of Raskolnikov’s Mind -- CHAPTER 5. Part 6: Last Meetings and Epilogue -- Appendix 1: Illustrations and Maps -- Appendix 2: Crime and Punishment Chronology -- Appendix 3: Contemporary Critical Reactions -- Appendix 4: Chronology of Dostoevsky’s Life -- Bibliography -- Index