Dumala’s “Metaphysical Movie” and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment: Working with Animated Films in Literature Lessons

Abstract

The article presents the results of a comparative analysis between Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment and its animated adaptation, exploring how the cartoon can be used in 10th-grade literature lessons. It examines the symbolic language, significant visual and auditory imagery, and cultural codes that contribute to the “metaphysical” nature of Dumala’s animated film. The study analyses the powerful suggestive beginning of the cartoon, and the author argues that the Polish film director perceives Crime and Punishment as a novel of dreams, consciousness and subconsciousness, a novel of memory centered around a single hero, a search and meeting of the hero with himself, a novel of self-recognition in Another. The article addresses key questions such as: Why is there no speech in the cartoon? What role does the music play? How is the plot constructed? Which storylines did the director consider, and how are they interconnected? What is the significance of artistic details, techniques, and cinematography? These and other questions are answered in the article.

Keywords

• dostoevsky
• dumala
• crime and punishment
• animated interpretation
• “metaphysical movie
• ” symbolism