Napoleon-Sun in Dostoevsky’s Novel Crime and Punishment

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the historical and cultural fusion of the Napoleonic and solar myth and its reflection in Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. The plea of investigator Porfiry Petrovich to Rodion Raskolnikov during their third conversation “to become the sun” affects not only the Christian, as many researchers have already noticed, but also the Napoleonic side of the personality of the hero, who is trying to become the new Petersburg’s legislator of humanity. Special attention is paid to the evolution of the concept of “the Sun of Austerlitz,” which is usually understood as the highest triumph of Napoleon during his entire military career, and the centennial tradition of identifying great rulers with the Sun (Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Louis XIV, Napoleon, etc.). The formation of the solar cult of Napoleon during the First Empire in France and the role of the sun in the novel Crime and Punishment are considered in detail. It is explained why Raskolnikov, whose name Rodion refers to the island of Rhodes, dedicated to Helios, the god of the sun, mentions a variety of battles and campaigns involving his idol (the Siege of Toulon, the Egyptian campaign, the crossing of the Alps, the War of 1812, Waterloo, etc.) but completely ignores the Battle of Austerlitz, and why the sun the hero comes across is almost always setting. In addition, the article traces the connection between Napoleon and Apollo in the European culture of the first half of the 19th century and in Dostoevsky’s work.