Crime and Punishment: How to Create a Deep Text

Abstract

Through microanalysis, the article shows the instruments used by Dostoevsky to create a text of great depth in his novel Crime and Punishment. An excerpt of Marmeladov’s speech on how he got his last job is analyzed, recurring to other episodes of the novel where the author works with biblical quotations or significant names in a similar way (for example, is shown the shift of meaning in the name Afrosinyushka). It is shown how in Crime and Punishment micro quotes from a “denunciatory” biblical text do not always concur to discredit the character the words refer to or the person who pronounces them. It is demonstrated how Dostoevsky when theologizing in literary works uses micro references to Scriptures in a complex way: not as a secret way to propose to the reader his judgment, but to explain to the reader his role towards the world and people around him (i.e., not morally, but ontologically).

Keywords

• dostoevsky
• crime and punishment
• theology
• anthropology
• deep text
• microanalysis of the text
• marmeladov’s speech
• biblical quotes
• shift of meaning in the character’s name.