Crime and Punishment in Serbian Theatre in the First Half of the 20th Century

Abstract

The article is devoted to theatrical adaptations of the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky staged in Serbia during the first half of the 20th century. These productions are analyzed in the broad context of the transmedial storytelling of the novel, included into intercultural paradigm. In the second part of the article, the author focuses on the analysis of two productions of the 1930s: the first one in Serbian language, with Serbian actors; the second one by a touring troupe, in Russian language, with Russian actors. Using the method of reconstruction, on the basis of the creation of artefacts, the author applies to these cultural events a multidisciplinary theory of photography and illustration, in order to identify a connection between the above-mentioned productions and the original text of Dostoevsky’s novel. Having tried to determine the orginality of Serbian stage productions, the articles comes to the conclusion that they are basically rooted into the original Russian culture, meanwhile terms of unique ‘Balkan recoding’ of Crime and Punishment can only be applied to its poetic transformations in Serbian-Croatian ‘zenitists’ artwork.

Keywords

• crime and punishment
• interculture
• transmedial storytelling
• serbian theatre
• staging
• dramatization
• photo
• illustration