August 30, 2024 • 20 mins
Can murder ever be justified for the greater good? Today, we will walk through the twisted streets of St. Petersburg, depicted by the brilliant yet tormented mind of Fyodor Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment is more than a novel—it's a psychological odyssey into the depths of guilt, redemption, and the human soul. Joining us is Dr. Julia Titus from Yale University, she is the author of Dostoevsky as a Translator of Balzac (2022). Dr. Titus will help us unravel the moral complexities and existential questions that continue to fascinate us over a century later.
Recommended Reading: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the Global Novel Podcast, where we journey
through the pages of theworld's most enlightening
literature.
I'm Claire Hennessey.
Today we will walk through thetwisted streets of St Petersburg
, depicted by the brilliant yettormented mind of viewer
Dostoevsky.
Crime and Punishment is morethan just a novel.
It is a psychological odysseyinto the depth of guilt,
(00:27):
redemption and the human soul.
Joining us is Dr Julia Titusfrom Yale University.
She is the author of Dostoevsky.
As a translator of Balzac, drTitus will help us unravel the
moral complexities andexistential questions that
continue to fascinate us over acentury later.
Hello Julia, so glad to haveyou back on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you so much, Claire.
Likewise, thank you so much forinviting me, and it's always a
pleasure to talk aboutDostoevsky, who is viewed as one
of the giants of Russianliterature, and I am so excited
to talk about his book with you,especially after our podcast on
Balzac, because we will seesome of the themes that we
discussed earlier as we talkedabout Eugenie Grande the power
(01:20):
of money, the corruptinginfluence of the city.
These themes are againamplified in the Crime and
Punishment, and I will be happyto chat more about these
Dostoevsky and his fiction havecertainly transcended the
borderline of nationalliterature, right?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Why do you think Dostoevsky is appreciated as a
significant figure in worldliterature rather than just
merely considered as a Russianauthor?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, because I think in all his novels he wanted to
explore the questions that arefundamental to human nature, to
human psychology, the moralambiguity that his protagonists
face, specifically in Crime andPunishment, the questions of
evil versus the questions of thegood, the questions of sin and
(02:10):
redemption.
How does one find the harmony inthe universe that is filled
with suffering?
So all these questions thatDostoevsky tried to pose and
answer in his novels are stillvery resonant for today's reader
, because we all still wantboundaries between good and evil
and to have some grounds forour existence.
(02:34):
For Dostoevsky, of course, asyou know, for Raskolnikov's
journey, it was Christian faith,but I think for any human being
today in Russia or in in US,anywhere, these deeper questions
of meaning and the deeperquestions of the human nature,
if human nature is fundamentallygood or is it fundamentally
(02:56):
corrupt, and what are theseforces that are in internal
conflict in human soul.
I believe that's what reallydraws the readers to Dostoevsky.
As I mentioned to you, I teachRussian and my students come to
class because they want to learnmore, because some of them read
Dostoevsky as part of the APnovel in American classrooms and
(03:20):
they feel that this particularnovel really made such a huge
impression on them that theywant to know more about
Dostoevsky himself and thecontext of that in which his
novel is set.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well, if we can capture the essence of this
novel Crime and Punishment inone sentence or two.
So what is the novel about,especially for you?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, I think it's Raskolnikov's the main
protagonist.
It's his journey towardsfinding the moral criterion.
Because he starts out as theperson who is very much obsessed
with the idea of Superman andhe wants to test the boundaries
of his rational choice, hisrational choice and at the same
(04:08):
time, of course, the novel endswith him coming to understand
that there are theseuntrespassable human values that
no one can break, and it's all.
He's ultimately led back to thefundamental concepts of
Christian good and he's redeemedfor faith because Sonia saves
him.
So this novel explores thismoral dilemmas of sin and
(04:29):
forgiveness and also whether theends justify the means.
Because he starts out, hecommits the crime or the murder
because he thinks it would be tothe benefit of society.
That's how he tries torationalize it.
So it's that conflict thatsometimes a person is facing
between something that he feelscompelled to rationalize but at
(04:53):
the same time that is not theobviously ethically acceptable
choice.
And Dostoevsky in his story forRaskolnikov, shows us that in a
conflict between trying torationalize something and your
compass which for Raskolnikovand for Sonia is Christian love
that would always be more trueto your choices.
(05:14):
Because Raskolnikov starts outas somebody who is super
intellectual, right.
He's wrapped up in hisintellectual ideas, but he,
ultimately, his guide to thespiritual awakening or rebirth,
is Sonia, who is really livingout of love.
Sonia is not an intellectual,she really relies on her
(05:37):
emotions and her heart more thananything.
And so for Dostoevsky, therewas this antinomy between the
rational choice that is often asuspect, even in Brothers K
right Ivan, who is the mosttormented, he tries to
rationalize a lot of his things,but Alyosha, who is guided by
(06:10):
Christian, which is grounded inour Christian love and faith.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right.
Well, the bleak portrait ofRussian society in Crime and
Punishment reflects the author'sown complex life experiences
and evolving ideas.
Could you introduce thebackdrop of Russian society at
the time for us, you know,within which the young
Dostoevsky was attracted byfancy ideas such as socialism
(06:37):
and reform, and how was hisideas gradually changed and
evolved by life circumstances?
Right, and how is that kind ofconflict conveyed in the novel?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, yes, dostoevsky worked at the time, which was
very turbulent for Russianhistory, because Russian history
was still, you know, thesociety had absolute monarchy,
still had served them, and, atthe same time, part of the
intellectual circles was alreadyintroduced to Western ideas.
(07:11):
So Dostoevsky was very young,he was very much influenced by
the French utopian socialists,right Like the ideas of Fourier,
and he joined the circle of theyoung intelligentsia
intellectuals, the Petrashevskycircle, where these ideas were
debated.
Because, at the same time,though, society was very much
(07:32):
backwards.
I mean, imagine, we still hadserfdom until, you know, the
reforms of Alexander II, peoplecould be bought and sold, and it
was just horrible.
And there was no civil rights,because it was really the
autocratic power which, sadly,is a tradition in Russia, in
Imperial Russia up to now.
And at the same time, yetenough people traveled abroad,
(07:55):
because the Decembrist movementalready happened.
Right, we had the Decembristrevolt, the attempt to bring
reforms, the Western-stylereforms in the Russian society,
which was, of course, thatrevolt in 1825 was suppressed,
but the ideas of a moredemocratic society, more liberal
society, the ideas that werefirst brought forth by French
(08:16):
Revolution, the ideas that werefirst brought forth by French
Revolution, they were alreadycirculating.
And so Dostoevsky joined thecircle of Petrashevsky and his
friends and subsequently, in1949, he was arrested and
condemned to death.
So he was a young man, still inhis 20s, but at the last moment
(08:42):
the Tsar decided to replace thecapital punishment with exile
to Siberia.
So imagine the effect that itmade on Dostoevsky, who was
waiting on a scaffold to behanged because of the death
sentence, and then suddenly themessenger comes and reads a
letter by the Tsar saying thatokay, these prisoners and his
friends, they would be pardonedand the death capital, death
(09:02):
punishment, would be replaced byexile.
So Dostoevsky consequentlyspent many years in Siberia in
hard labor, and as he emerged heobviously profoundly changed
his beliefs.
That's how he became even morefocused on.
You know, he was always veryreligious because of his deeply
religious mother, but had thistransformative experience,
(09:25):
almost been forced to die andthen spending so many years in
hard labor?
He then wrote the book which wascalled the Notes from the House
of the Dead, because house ofthe dead were of course, the
inmates, and in that book hewrites a lot about, you know,
the human nature.
I mean, one of the topics thatyou mentioned was Dostoevsky
(09:45):
vis-à-vis Tolstoy, and so theyviewed human nature very
differently.
Because while Tolstoy was morewith Rousseau, seeing human
nature as more fundamentallygood, dostoevsky thought there
are these forces of darkness,there is a force of good and
evil, and they are alwaysfighting for the human soul.
And he felt, dostoevsky, thatone moral compass that the
(10:10):
person can have in trying tomake correct choices would be
indeed Christian faith.
And there is this very famousquote from Dostoevsky.
He says if I were forced to bechoosing between truth and
Christ, I would rather remainwith Christ than with truth.
And what it really means isthat Christ, for Dostoevsky,
(10:31):
embodied this value of universallove, unconditional universal
love, whereas truth was moresomething that you could
rationalize.
And you see that very wellactually in Raskolnikov and
Sonia, in that dichotomy,because Raskolnikov tries to
rationalize his truth abouthelping the universe by getting
(10:52):
rid of the pawnbroker right, andSonia is just guided by her
heart.
So I think that, to go back tothe original point, the exile,
the first capital punishment,that moment of almost dying, and
then years in Siberia in hardlabor, certainly had a huge
impact on Dostoevsky because hewas really forced to.
(11:13):
Then he renounced these Westernideas of radicalism and he went
back to his Orthodox beliefsgrounded deeply in Orthodoxy and
Slavophilism.
He just thought that Westernideas would not be appropriate
for Russia.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I'm just so struck by that dramatic moment of being
executed.
You know, that kind of almostcrossed the borderline between
life and death.
It can be so transformativethat it changes you.
So, like you just said, in thenovel Dostoevsky uses
Raskolnikov's character tocritique the influence of
utilitarianism and rationalegoism that had taken hold among
(11:55):
the Russian radicals of histime.
So, considering Dostoevsky'sintent to counteract these
westernizing ideas, so how doyou think his portrayal of the
main character Raskolnikovchallenges or reinforces the
contemporary radical ideologies,particularly in relation to
this idea of a superiorindividual justified in
(12:19):
committing acts for theso-called perceived greater good
?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Well, this is of course a central question and
the idea of a superiorindividual who will justify his,
whatever the murder actuallyfor the greater good is also
present in Balzac.
As you know, there's a lot ofresearch written on Balzac and
Dostoevsky is very similar toRaskolnikov vis-à-vis Pergurio
(12:49):
when Votrem says to Rastignacabout killing at the duel the
brother of Victorine Tailleferand then he will become an heir
to immense fortune.
So that idea that, okay, onemurder because it would not be
really of course a true duel, itwould be a murder can really
change the life.
(13:10):
That's the moral dilemma whichwas also very interesting for
Balzac, because Balzac was alsovery interested in human nature.
Then Dostoevsky takes that ideaa step further because
Raskolnikov, of course, forRastignyak, is just imaginary.
He's forced to contemplate that, but that murder never happens
(13:31):
For Raskolnikov.
He takes it a step furtherbecause he actually decides to
go through with the crime andit's interesting because the
crime is committed early in thenovel and then really the
majority of text is Raskolnikovcoming to terms with that,
because the event happens if wethink of it as whodunit.
(13:52):
You know, dostoevsky took hisplots.
He was an avid reader ofnewspapers and he would read the
criminal chronicles in thenewspapers, and then he will
take the material from them.
So the criminal elementwhodunit.
If you think of it as a spurn ofa detective novel, that
happened in the first, probably100 pages very quickly.
(14:13):
But then the bulk of the noveland why the novel became so
famous is because you are withRaskolnikov on his psychological
journey.
He has to really process andcome to terms with what he has
done and he becomes likephysically ill, as you remember.
So his inner turmoil has thisphysical effects in his sickness
(14:36):
and then other characters thathe meets again.
He meets Sonia, the person whois completely opposite to him,
and it's significantly Sonia,the fallen woman, the prostitute
, who leads Raskolnikov tospiritual rebirth.
How is she able to do it?
Well, she reads him the Bible.
(14:57):
She reads him the chapter aboutLazarus.
So there is this metaphoricalnarrative that allows
Raskolnikov, just like Lazarus,to see anew the consequences of
what he has done.
And of course in the epilogueit's only in the epilogue when
he's also in Siberia with Sonia,when he's serving at hard labor
(15:20):
, then he becomes a new man.
He suddenly finds the innerpeace.
It's very important that heonly becomes at peace with
himself not only after heconfessed but after he starts to
service his sentence at theepilogue.
So the choices of Raskolnikovhimself and his fate.
(15:41):
It's a great testament againstradicalism.
For Dostoevsky, ultimately,it's ethics, the really
traditional concepts of biblicalcommandments thou shalt not
kill that really supersedeeverything else.
(16:02):
Like for Dostoevsky's world,you cannot justify the murder,
no matter how you can do so.
Certainly it's against that.
The novel is a strong testamentto falsehood of these ideas.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Right, I truly endorse this novelistic idea of
viewing or using the novel as asort of intentional art.
So when you write a novel,you're very conscious of your
skill.
Dostoevsky, you know for sure,is highly conscious of using
that, and one example thatstruck me most is this chapter
(16:35):
is in the very beginning of thenovel that he received this long
letter from his mom telling himbasically hey, son, don't worry
, you know, we got you covered.
Your sister is going to marry avery rich man.
And he also followed, you know,this long letter with this kind
of almost like a manual for thereaders to dissect.
(16:55):
You know, to read between thelines, you know what's really
behind this letter, and I thinkthat's just amazing.
So in what ways shall weconsider Dostoevsky as a highly
skilled craftsman, right, youknow?
Shall we consider Dostoevsky asa highly skilled craftsman,
right, you know he is alwaysconscious of the formal pattern
in his novelistic art.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yes, well, the letter actually is an excellent
example, because that's alsoanother piece that is very
similar to Le Père Goriot.
Because you know Jean deCastignac, how is he able to
survive in Paris?
Well, because his mother andhis sisters, they sent him money
and the letters.
So it's really as we spokebefore, dostoevsky was a big
(17:37):
admirer of Balzac, so that'staken also very similarly.
It's the same idea that motherlooks up to Rodion, just like
the family of Rastignac who lookup with admiration to that
brother, to the son who is inParis, you know, making his
career and so forth.
So similar, but in terms ofDostoevsky's novelistic art, one
(17:58):
would say that his novels asexcellent as masterpieces of
psychological realism, becauseon one hand, he was really the
master in depicting thepsychological states.
You mentioned and we will talkmore about it the image of the
city, because really, anotherthing that Dostoevsky brought to
literature, he brought themultiplicity of perspectives
(18:20):
right, the polyphony, becausethere's not one but many, many
voices in the novel and youcannot really say, okay, this is
the domineering narrative orthis is the leading voice,
because you have multipleviewpoints.
Multiplicity of viewpoints, andit was Mikhail Bakhtin, the
(18:40):
famous Russian theorist, whocalled Dostoevsky's novels the
polyphonic novels, because theyhave this many, many voices who
are simultaneously present, soone event would be
simultaneously viewed frommultiple perspectives.
And the same other thing thatallows him to be such a great
writer is because the city, theimage of the city, is always
(19:04):
present in his novels and it'snot like a backdrop.
It's similar also to Balzac,because when we think of Balzac
novel we think of Paris, whichreally takes on a very important
role in Balzacian narrative,because what happens in Paris
doesn't happen in the provinces.
Similarly in Petersburg, themyth we can talk about
(19:26):
Petersburg as really the activecharacter in the novel, because
Raskolnikov is forced to spendthe summer that is dreadfully
hot, as you remember in the cityand that's also it contributes
to his agitated state of mentalstate, because the rich Peter's
books is able to go to thecountry and thus seek respite
(19:49):
from the heat and all this urbanheat that is now present.
So when Raskolnikov walksaround in the beginning he's
already half delirious.
Even before he commits a murderhe's very, very unhappy.
So Dostoevsky is a novelist.
He uses that myth of the city.
It's very active.
The city becomes Petersburg,becomes an active character,
(20:12):
almost the main character in thenovel right.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
We hope you're enjoying this episode.
In the second half, dr Tituswill talk about the author's use
of third-person omniscientperspective among other
polyphonic narrative voicescoexisting in the novel.
If you desire to complete thisepisode, we encourage you to
subscribe at theglobalnovelcomslash subscribe.
Thank you so much for listening.
Welcome to the Global Novel Podcast, where we journey
through the pages of theworld's most enlightening
literature.
I'm Claire Hennessey.
Today we will walk through thetwisted streets of St Petersburg
, depicted by the brilliant yettormented mind of viewer
Dostoevsky.
Crime and Punishment is morethan just a novel.
It is a psychological odysseyinto the depth of guilt,
(00:27):
redemption and the human soul.
Joining us is Dr Julia Titusfrom Yale University.
She is the author of Dostoevsky.
As a translator of Balzac, drTitus will help us unravel the
moral complexities andexistential questions that
continue to fascinate us over acentury later.
Hello Julia, so glad to haveyou back on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Thank you so much, Claire.
Likewise, thank you so much forinviting me, and it's always a
pleasure to talk aboutDostoevsky, who is viewed as one
of the giants of Russianliterature, and I am so excited
to talk about his book with you,especially after our podcast on
Balzac, because we will seesome of the themes that we
discussed earlier as we talkedabout Eugenie Grande the power
(01:20):
of money, the corruptinginfluence of the city.
These themes are againamplified in the Crime and
Punishment, and I will be happyto chat more about these
Dostoevsky and his fiction havecertainly transcended the
borderline of nationalliterature, right?
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Why do you think Dostoevsky is appreciated as a
significant figure in worldliterature rather than just
merely considered as a Russianauthor?
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Well, because I think in all his novels he wanted to
explore the questions that arefundamental to human nature, to
human psychology, the moralambiguity that his protagonists
face, specifically in Crime andPunishment, the questions of
evil versus the questions of thegood, the questions of sin and
(02:10):
redemption.
How does one find the harmony inthe universe that is filled
with suffering?
So all these questions thatDostoevsky tried to pose and
answer in his novels are stillvery resonant for today's reader
, because we all still wantboundaries between good and evil
and to have some grounds forour existence.
(02:34):
For Dostoevsky, of course, asyou know, for Raskolnikov's
journey, it was Christian faith,but I think for any human being
today in Russia or in in US,anywhere, these deeper questions
of meaning and the deeperquestions of the human nature,
if human nature is fundamentallygood or is it fundamentally
(02:56):
corrupt, and what are theseforces that are in internal
conflict in human soul.
I believe that's what reallydraws the readers to Dostoevsky.
As I mentioned to you, I teachRussian and my students come to
class because they want to learnmore, because some of them read
Dostoevsky as part of the APnovel in American classrooms and
(03:20):
they feel that this particularnovel really made such a huge
impression on them that theywant to know more about
Dostoevsky himself and thecontext of that in which his
novel is set.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well, if we can capture the essence of this
novel Crime and Punishment inone sentence or two.
So what is the novel about,especially for you?
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, I think it's Raskolnikov's the main
protagonist.
It's his journey towardsfinding the moral criterion.
Because he starts out as theperson who is very much obsessed
with the idea of Superman andhe wants to test the boundaries
of his rational choice, hisrational choice and at the same
(04:08):
time, of course, the novel endswith him coming to understand
that there are theseuntrespassable human values that
no one can break, and it's all.
He's ultimately led back to thefundamental concepts of
Christian good and he's redeemedfor faith because Sonia saves
him.
So this novel explores thismoral dilemmas of sin and
(04:29):
forgiveness and also whether theends justify the means.
Because he starts out, hecommits the crime or the murder
because he thinks it would be tothe benefit of society.
That's how he tries torationalize it.
So it's that conflict thatsometimes a person is facing
between something that he feelscompelled to rationalize but at
(04:53):
the same time that is not theobviously ethically acceptable
choice.
And Dostoevsky in his story forRaskolnikov, shows us that in a
conflict between trying torationalize something and your
compass which for Raskolnikovand for Sonia is Christian love
that would always be more trueto your choices.
(05:14):
Because Raskolnikov starts outas somebody who is super
intellectual, right.
He's wrapped up in hisintellectual ideas, but he,
ultimately, his guide to thespiritual awakening or rebirth,
is Sonia, who is really livingout of love.
Sonia is not an intellectual,she really relies on her
(05:37):
emotions and her heart more thananything.
And so for Dostoevsky, therewas this antinomy between the
rational choice that is often asuspect, even in Brothers K
right Ivan, who is the mosttormented, he tries to
rationalize a lot of his things,but Alyosha, who is guided by
(06:10):
Christian, which is grounded inour Christian love and faith.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Right.
Well, the bleak portrait ofRussian society in Crime and
Punishment reflects the author'sown complex life experiences
and evolving ideas.
Could you introduce thebackdrop of Russian society at
the time for us, you know,within which the young
Dostoevsky was attracted byfancy ideas such as socialism
(06:37):
and reform, and how was hisideas gradually changed and
evolved by life circumstances?
Right, and how is that kind ofconflict conveyed in the novel?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Well, yes, dostoevsky worked at the time, which was
very turbulent for Russianhistory, because Russian history
was still, you know, thesociety had absolute monarchy,
still had served them, and, atthe same time, part of the
intellectual circles was alreadyintroduced to Western ideas.
(07:11):
So Dostoevsky was very young,he was very much influenced by
the French utopian socialists,right Like the ideas of Fourier,
and he joined the circle of theyoung intelligentsia
intellectuals, the Petrashevskycircle, where these ideas were
debated.
Because, at the same time,though, society was very much
(07:32):
backwards.
I mean, imagine, we still hadserfdom until, you know, the
reforms of Alexander II, peoplecould be bought and sold, and it
was just horrible.
And there was no civil rights,because it was really the
autocratic power which, sadly,is a tradition in Russia, in
Imperial Russia up to now.
And at the same time, yetenough people traveled abroad,
(07:55):
because the Decembrist movementalready happened.
Right, we had the Decembristrevolt, the attempt to bring
reforms, the Western-stylereforms in the Russian society,
which was, of course, thatrevolt in 1825 was suppressed,
but the ideas of a moredemocratic society, more liberal
society, the ideas that werefirst brought forth by French
(08:16):
Revolution, the ideas that werefirst brought forth by French
Revolution, they were alreadycirculating.
And so Dostoevsky joined thecircle of Petrashevsky and his
friends and subsequently, in1949, he was arrested and
condemned to death.
So he was a young man, still inhis 20s, but at the last moment
(08:42):
the Tsar decided to replace thecapital punishment with exile
to Siberia.
So imagine the effect that itmade on Dostoevsky, who was
waiting on a scaffold to behanged because of the death
sentence, and then suddenly themessenger comes and reads a
letter by the Tsar saying thatokay, these prisoners and his
friends, they would be pardonedand the death capital, death
(09:02):
punishment, would be replaced byexile.
So Dostoevsky consequentlyspent many years in Siberia in
hard labor, and as he emerged heobviously profoundly changed
his beliefs.
That's how he became even morefocused on.
You know, he was always veryreligious because of his deeply
religious mother, but had thistransformative experience,
(09:25):
almost been forced to die andthen spending so many years in
hard labor?
He then wrote the book which wascalled the Notes from the House
of the Dead, because house ofthe dead were of course, the
inmates, and in that book hewrites a lot about, you know,
the human nature.
I mean, one of the topics thatyou mentioned was Dostoevsky
(09:45):
vis-à-vis Tolstoy, and so theyviewed human nature very
differently.
Because while Tolstoy was morewith Rousseau, seeing human
nature as more fundamentallygood, dostoevsky thought there
are these forces of darkness,there is a force of good and
evil, and they are alwaysfighting for the human soul.
And he felt, dostoevsky, thatone moral compass that the
(10:10):
person can have in trying tomake correct choices would be
indeed Christian faith.
And there is this very famousquote from Dostoevsky.
He says if I were forced to bechoosing between truth and
Christ, I would rather remainwith Christ than with truth.
And what it really means isthat Christ, for Dostoevsky,
(10:31):
embodied this value of universallove, unconditional universal
love, whereas truth was moresomething that you could
rationalize.
And you see that very wellactually in Raskolnikov and
Sonia, in that dichotomy,because Raskolnikov tries to
rationalize his truth abouthelping the universe by getting
(10:52):
rid of the pawnbroker right, andSonia is just guided by her
heart.
So I think that, to go back tothe original point, the exile,
the first capital punishment,that moment of almost dying, and
then years in Siberia in hardlabor, certainly had a huge
impact on Dostoevsky because hewas really forced to.
(11:13):
Then he renounced these Westernideas of radicalism and he went
back to his Orthodox beliefsgrounded deeply in Orthodoxy and
Slavophilism.
He just thought that Westernideas would not be appropriate
for Russia.
Speaker 1 (11:31):
I'm just so struck by that dramatic moment of being
executed.
You know, that kind of almostcrossed the borderline between
life and death.
It can be so transformativethat it changes you.
So, like you just said, in thenovel Dostoevsky uses
Raskolnikov's character tocritique the influence of
utilitarianism and rationalegoism that had taken hold among
(11:55):
the Russian radicals of histime.
So, considering Dostoevsky'sintent to counteract these
westernizing ideas, so how doyou think his portrayal of the
main character Raskolnikovchallenges or reinforces the
contemporary radical ideologies,particularly in relation to
this idea of a superiorindividual justified in
(12:19):
committing acts for theso-called perceived greater good
?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Well, this is of course a central question and
the idea of a superiorindividual who will justify his,
whatever the murder actuallyfor the greater good is also
present in Balzac.
As you know, there's a lot ofresearch written on Balzac and
Dostoevsky is very similar toRaskolnikov vis-à-vis Pergurio
(12:49):
when Votrem says to Rastignacabout killing at the duel the
brother of Victorine Tailleferand then he will become an heir
to immense fortune.
So that idea that, okay, onemurder because it would not be
really of course a true duel, itwould be a murder can really
change the life.
(13:10):
That's the moral dilemma whichwas also very interesting for
Balzac, because Balzac was alsovery interested in human nature.
Then Dostoevsky takes that ideaa step further because
Raskolnikov, of course, forRastignyak, is just imaginary.
He's forced to contemplate that, but that murder never happens
(13:31):
For Raskolnikov.
He takes it a step furtherbecause he actually decides to
go through with the crime andit's interesting because the
crime is committed early in thenovel and then really the
majority of text is Raskolnikovcoming to terms with that,
because the event happens if wethink of it as whodunit.
(13:52):
You know, dostoevsky took hisplots.
He was an avid reader ofnewspapers and he would read the
criminal chronicles in thenewspapers, and then he will
take the material from them.
So the criminal elementwhodunit.
If you think of it as a spurn ofa detective novel, that
happened in the first, probably100 pages very quickly.
(14:13):
But then the bulk of the noveland why the novel became so
famous is because you are withRaskolnikov on his psychological
journey.
He has to really process andcome to terms with what he has
done and he becomes likephysically ill, as you remember.
So his inner turmoil has thisphysical effects in his sickness
(14:36):
and then other characters thathe meets again.
He meets Sonia, the person whois completely opposite to him,
and it's significantly Sonia,the fallen woman, the prostitute
, who leads Raskolnikov tospiritual rebirth.
How is she able to do it?
Well, she reads him the Bible.
(14:57):
She reads him the chapter aboutLazarus.
So there is this metaphoricalnarrative that allows
Raskolnikov, just like Lazarus,to see anew the consequences of
what he has done.
And of course in the epilogueit's only in the epilogue when
he's also in Siberia with Sonia,when he's serving at hard labor
(15:20):
, then he becomes a new man.
He suddenly finds the innerpeace.
It's very important that heonly becomes at peace with
himself not only after heconfessed but after he starts to
service his sentence at theepilogue.
So the choices of Raskolnikovhimself and his fate.
(15:41):
It's a great testament againstradicalism.
For Dostoevsky, ultimately,it's ethics, the really
traditional concepts of biblicalcommandments thou shalt not
kill that really supersedeeverything else.
(16:02):
Like for Dostoevsky's world,you cannot justify the murder,
no matter how you can do so.
Certainly it's against that.
The novel is a strong testamentto falsehood of these ideas.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Right, I truly endorse this novelistic idea of
viewing or using the novel as asort of intentional art.
So when you write a novel,you're very conscious of your
skill.
Dostoevsky, you know for sure,is highly conscious of using
that, and one example thatstruck me most is this chapter
(16:35):
is in the very beginning of thenovel that he received this long
letter from his mom telling himbasically hey, son, don't worry
, you know, we got you covered.
Your sister is going to marry avery rich man.
And he also followed, you know,this long letter with this kind
of almost like a manual for thereaders to dissect.
(16:55):
You know, to read between thelines, you know what's really
behind this letter, and I thinkthat's just amazing.
So in what ways shall weconsider Dostoevsky as a highly
skilled craftsman, right, youknow?
Shall we consider Dostoevsky asa highly skilled craftsman,
right, you know he is alwaysconscious of the formal pattern
in his novelistic art.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Yes, well, the letter actually is an excellent
example, because that's alsoanother piece that is very
similar to Le Père Goriot.
Because you know Jean deCastignac, how is he able to
survive in Paris?
Well, because his mother andhis sisters, they sent him money
and the letters.
So it's really as we spokebefore, dostoevsky was a big
(17:37):
admirer of Balzac, so that'staken also very similarly.
It's the same idea that motherlooks up to Rodion, just like
the family of Rastignac who lookup with admiration to that
brother, to the son who is inParis, you know, making his
career and so forth.
So similar, but in terms ofDostoevsky's novelistic art, one
(17:58):
would say that his novels asexcellent as masterpieces of
psychological realism, becauseon one hand, he was really the
master in depicting thepsychological states.
You mentioned and we will talkmore about it the image of the
city, because really, anotherthing that Dostoevsky brought to
literature, he brought themultiplicity of perspectives
(18:20):
right, the polyphony, becausethere's not one but many, many
voices in the novel and youcannot really say, okay, this is
the domineering narrative orthis is the leading voice,
because you have multipleviewpoints.
Multiplicity of viewpoints, andit was Mikhail Bakhtin, the
(18:40):
famous Russian theorist, whocalled Dostoevsky's novels the
polyphonic novels, because theyhave this many, many voices who
are simultaneously present, soone event would be
simultaneously viewed frommultiple perspectives.
And the same other thing thatallows him to be such a great
writer is because the city, theimage of the city, is always
(19:04):
present in his novels and it'snot like a backdrop.
It's similar also to Balzac,because when we think of Balzac
novel we think of Paris, whichreally takes on a very important
role in Balzacian narrative,because what happens in Paris
doesn't happen in the provinces.
Similarly in Petersburg, themyth we can talk about
(19:26):
Petersburg as really the activecharacter in the novel, because
Raskolnikov is forced to spendthe summer that is dreadfully
hot, as you remember in the cityand that's also it contributes
to his agitated state of mentalstate, because the rich Peter's
books is able to go to thecountry and thus seek respite
(19:49):
from the heat and all this urbanheat that is now present.
So when Raskolnikov walksaround in the beginning he's
already half delirious.
Even before he commits a murderhe's very, very unhappy.
So Dostoevsky is a novelist.
He uses that myth of the city.
It's very active.
The city becomes Petersburg,becomes an active character,
(20:12):
almost the main character in thenovel right.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
We hope you're enjoying this episode.
In the second half, dr Tituswill talk about the author's use
of third-person omniscientperspective among other
polyphonic narrative voicescoexisting in the novel.
If you desire to complete thisepisode, we encourage you to
subscribe at theglobalnovelcomslash subscribe.
Thank you so much for listening.
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