Profane challenge and Orthodox response in Dostoevsky's Crime and punishment / / Janet G. Tucker.

• Superior document: Studies in Slavic literature and poetics ; 52
• Author: Tucker, Janet G.
• Year of Publication: 2008
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Slavic literature and poetics ; v. 52.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (290 pages)
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Profane Challenge and Orthodox Response in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment presents for the first time an examination of this great novel as a work aimed at winning back “target readers”, young contemporary radicals, from Utilitarianism, nihilism, and Utopian Socialism. Dostoevsky framed the battle in the context of the Orthodox Church and oral tradition versus the West. He relied on knowledge of the Gospels as text received orally , forcing readers to react emotionally, not rationally, and thus undermining the very basis of his opponents’ arguments. Dostoevsky saves Raskol’nikov, underscoring the inadequacy of rational thought and reminding his readers of a heritage discarded at their peril. This volume should be of special interest to secondary and university students, as well as to readers interested in literature, particularly, in Russian literature, and Dostoevsky.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Preface -- Introduction -- The Significance of Orality and the Oral Tradition: Dostoevsky Counter-Attacks -- The Religious Symbolism of Cloth and Clothing in Crime and Punishment -- Iconic Images in Crime and Punishment: Russia’s Western Capital -- “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” in Crime and Punishment -- The Significance of Alterity or “Otherness” in Crime and Punishment: Russian Culture and Western Change -- The Epilogue Reconsidered -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.