Svidrigailov and Achilles the Jew: About the Poetics of One Episode

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Author: George S. Prokhorov
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DSc in Philology, Professor, State University of Social Studies and Humanities, Zelyonaya St., 30, 140410 Kolomna, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4652-8698

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Prokhorov, G.S. “Svidrigailov and Achilles the Jew: About the Poetics of One Episode.” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 4 (28), 2024, pp. 72–89. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2024-4-72-89
Received: 22 July 2024
Published: 25 Dec. 2024
Issue: 2024 no. 4 (28)
Department: POETICS. CONTEXT
Pages: 72-89
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2024-4-72-89
EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/KEEIBQ
UDK: 821.161.1.0
BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)
Keywords: Dostoevsky and the Jews, Crime and Punishment, Svidrigailov, Ahasverus, narrative, Judaizing, Judeophobia.
Abstract: The article offers a narrative and contextual approach into a short but meaningful episode of the Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment where just minutes before committing a suicide Svidrigailov encounters a Jew. Why is a Jew the sole witness of the scene? The narrative structure of the episode shows how solidly the Jew is linked with Svidrigailov’s mind. Knitted from Medieval anti-Jewish narratives, the Jew is perceived by Svidrigailov as a substitute of the Devil himself. Thus, the encounter continues and completes the existential nightmares of Svidrigailov which constantly torture the protagonist. Meanwhile, the plot of the episode competes against the Medieval-style vision. First, the Jew looks absolutely non-interested in the eternal death of his Christian vis-a-vis. Outside the Svidrigailov’s perception, the Jew acts from a narrow motivation — he just doesn’t want to get into trouble due to the alien person. The Jew acts trivial like next to any other “little official” of 19th-century Russian literature. The plot profanes the infernal perceptions of Svidrigailov, — namely, his pre-liminal and macabre attempt either to scrape up a brother with the Devil or to bull at him. Some contexts hint at one more semantic level of the episode. Svidrigailov himself is portrayed as a Jew; moreover, some motifs link him to the Ahasverus of Romanticism. The substitution traces a typical for the 19th-century Europe fear of Judaization deriving from an exposure of Christians to Capitalism.

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