The Title of Crime and Punishment as a Key to a Holistic Analysis of Dostoevsky’s Novel at School. Article 1: Crime

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Author: Olga Yu. Yuryeva
Information about the author:

DSc in Philology, Head of the Department of Philology and Methodology, Pedagogical Institute, Federal State-Founded Educational Institution of Higher Education “Irkutsk State University,” Sukhe-Batora 9, 664003 Irkutsk, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8424-4202

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For citation:

Yuryeva, O.Yu. “The Title of Crime and Punishment as a Key to a Holistic Analysis of Dostoevsky’s Novel at School. Article 1: Crime.” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 1 (25), 2024, pp. 168–197. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2024-1-168-197
Received: 15 Jan. 2024
Published: 25 Mar. 2024
Issue: 2024 no. 1 (25)
Department: TEACHING DOSTOEVSKY
Pages: 168-197
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2024-1-168-197
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/YDETNP
UDK: 882(092):81'37
BBK: 83.3Р1
Keywords: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, semantics of the title, religious and philosophical meaning of the concepts of “crime” and “punishment,” Razumikhin’s image, motives of Raskolnikov’s crime.
Abstract: The article is intended for teachers of literature and can help organize a conversation about the novel Crime and Punishment. It offers a variant of a modern reading of one of the most significant works of the school curriculum and summarizes the views of leading Dostoevsky’s scholars on the key problems of the novel, offering topical interpretations of its fundamental images and collisions. A new interpretation of Razumikhin’s image as a true “Russian personality” and the embodiment of the “brotherhood” that will save Raskolnikov is proposed here. The analysis of the multidimensional semantics of the concepts of “crime” and “punishment” included in the title allows the teacher to present a holistic analysis of the novel, organize a conversation about the key images and problems raised in it, help students grasp the depth and significance of the issues that can be “dug out” of it. Answering the questions proposed in the article and completing assignments, the students come to the conclusion that the true crime in the novel is represented by the idea, and the murder of an old woman is the result of its influence. Such concepts as “false” and “true” motives of crime, universal and actual concept of “algorithm of crime” are introduced into the methodology of school analysis of the novel, “dialectics” of a “ideologic crime” is shown. The article proposes a system of questions and tasks that can contribute to a deeper understanding of the great novel by students.

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