The Three Motives of Raskolnikov: A Reinterpretation of Crime and Punishment

Beebe, Maurice

doi:10.2307/495737

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Not only do the other characters despise the despicable Luzhin – “[n]o one has a good word for Luzhin; no one regrets his being driven from the society of the novel” (Welch, 1976: 135) – but literary critics’ attitudes toward Luzhin, from the 1950s up through the present, appear to mirror attitudes found in the life of the story: “The most unfeeling, cold-blooded and self-willed crime in the novel is not Raskolnikov’s murder of the old pawnbroker … but Luzhin’s false accusation of Sonya on the day of her father’s funeral” (Beebe, 1955: 154); Luzhin’s “motives for marrying Dunya are revolting,” he is “petty, materialistic, and ambitious” (Welch, 1976: 135–136); Luzhin is “unessential, as a mere accessory in the plotting of the intrigue” (Wasiolek as cited in Welch, 1976: 136); in other words, he is superfluous; Luzhin has a “disgusting personality” (Simmons as cited in Welch, 1976: 136); he is “a despot-analogue of the power-cult” (Niemi as cited in Welch, 1976: 136); Luzhin is a certain “type,” all those “vicious people exploiting and degrading innocent people” (Jackson, 1988: 74), it is the “self-sacrificing people who are helpless before the evil in the world, before the Luzhins” (Jackson, 1988: 70); Luzhin is an “unctuous” “hypocrit[e]” (Frank, 2010: 495) who only pretends to be concerned with other people’s welfare. As critics have gathered, “Luzhin’s motives can be quickly grasped … he repels easily, usefully” (Welch, 1976: 136–137).…”

Section: Raskolnikov’s Crime and Luzhin’s “Crime”mentioning

confidence: 99%

The cosmopolitan subject and the question of cultural identity: The case of Crime and Punishment

Spector

2016

Crime, Media, Culture

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Though contemporary discourse on cosmopolitanism has celebrated a cosmopolitan subject's "rootedness" in two worlds -i.e. the polis and the cosmos -this emphasis has evaded analysis of the historical and damning term "rootless cosmopolitan." Under the totalitarianisms of Nazism and late Stalinism, a "rootless cosmopolitan" was a life-threatening epithet aimed at those people, namely "the Jews," criminalized for supposedly lacking national allegiance and affiliating with foreign cultures. This paper argues that an ethical problem arises when cosmopolitanism is understood in cultural terms. To illuminate this problem in the particular, this paper interprets Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, specifically the novel's nationalistic themes and its cosmopolitan villain, Peter Petrovich Luzhin. In the unfolding analysis that draws from scholarship in cultural criminology, it is revealed that the Russian writer's designated masterful genius helped fuel one of the greatest crimes in history (the Holocaust) perpetrated against a people accused of cosmopolitanism. It is argued that interpreting the criminalization of Luzhin provides an allegorical occasion to gain conceptual clarity on present articulations of cosmopolitanism as a cultural construct. Attending to Dostoevsky's anti-cosmopolitanism, and those whom he has in/ directly influenced on this subject, provides a rationale for critiquing cultural cosmopolitanism -a construct that is conceptually and materially dangerous.

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Section: Raskolnikov’s Crime and Luzhin’s “Crime”mentioning

confidence: 99%

The cosmopolitan subject and the question of cultural identity: The case of Crime and Punishment

Spector

2016

Crime, Media, Culture

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“…Os prisioneiros e ele "se entreolhavam com desconfiança e antipatia" (DOSTOIÉVSKI, 2019a, p. 556). Mesmo sob essa condição, Raskólnikov não mais os despreza com arrogância, dado que assume um papel de autoabnegação (BEEBE, 1955).…”

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Raskolnikóv e Caim

Martins

Barnabé²

2022

Teoliterária

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Na obra, Crime e Castigo, do escritor Fiódor Dostoiévski (1821-1881), narra-se a história do falido estudante de direito Raskólnikov que, perante o espírito niilista de sua época, realiza o duplo homicídio contra a velha usurária e sua irmã. Ao longo da história, grande parte dos estudiosos analisaram a caracterização da personagem, Raskólnikov, sob o âmbito desta ser um reflexo das condições histórico-filosóficas do período em que Dostoiévski compôs a obra. No entanto, pouco estudo se direcionou em compreender a caracterização da personagem em relação ao arquétipo bíblico do assassinato, neste caso, representado por Caim e seu ato fraticida. Nesse viés, o artigo tem como objetivo analisar intertextualmente a caracterização da personagem Raskólnikov à luz da caracterização de Caim no relato bíblico de Gn 4:1-16. O texto bíblico em questão, foi examinado em sua forma sincrônica e posto como modelo mitológico-literário de crime. Tanto Raskólnikov como Caim representam vozes universais da violência. Eles estão em ruptura em relação ao outro, dado que cometem o crime, e por isso são indiferentes e egoístas. Mas ambos descobrem que não há crime sem castigo. Nesse sentido, as personagens são convidadas para o perdão, para a reconciliação e o restabelecimento pleno do diálogo.

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Literary Precedents for Uniqueness

Snyder

Fromkin

1980

Uniqueness

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The Three Motives of Raskolnikov: A Reinterpretation of Crime and Punishment

Cited by 4 publications

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The cosmopolitan subject and the question of cultural identity: The case of Crime and Punishment

The cosmopolitan subject and the question of cultural identity: The case of Crime and Punishment

Raskolnikóv e Caim

Literary Precedents for Uniqueness

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