The Global Novel: a literature podcast
The Global Novel is a podcast that surveys the narratology of world literature and history of translation from antiquity to modernity with a critical lens and aims to make academic education in literature accessible to the world.
The Global Novel: a literature podcast
Crime and Punishment (1866)
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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Welcome to the Global Novel Podcast, where we journey through the pages of the world's most enlightening literature. I'm Claire Hennessey. Today we will walk through the twisted streets of St Petersburg, depicted by the brilliant yet tormented mind of viewer Dostoevsky. Crime and Punishment is more than just a novel. It is a psychological odyssey into the depth 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, dr Titus will help us unravel the moral complexities and existential questions that continue to fascinate us over a century later. Hello Julia, so glad to have you back on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, Claire. Likewise, thank you so much for inviting me, and it's always a pleasure to talk about Dostoevsky, who is viewed as one of the giants of Russian literature, and I am so excited to talk about his book with you, especially after our podcast on Balzac, because we will see some of the themes that we discussed earlier as we talked about Eugenie Grande the power of money, the corrupting influence of the city. These themes are again amplified in the Crime and Punishment, and I will be happy to chat more about these Dostoevsky and his fiction have certainly transcended the borderline of national literature, right?
Speaker 1:Why do you think Dostoevsky is appreciated as a significant figure in world literature rather than just merely considered as a Russian author?
Speaker 2:Well, because I think in all his novels he wanted to explore the questions that are fundamental to human nature, to human psychology, the moral ambiguity that his protagonists face, specifically in Crime and Punishment, the questions of evil versus the questions of the good, the questions of sin and redemption.
Speaker 2:How does one find the harmony in the universe that is filled with suffering? So all these questions that Dostoevsky tried to pose and answer in his novels are still very resonant for today's reader, because we all still want boundaries between good and evil and to have some grounds for our existence. For Dostoevsky, of course, as you 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 deeper questions of the human nature, if human nature is fundamentally good or is it fundamentally corrupt, and what are these forces that are in internal conflict in human soul. I believe that's what really draws the readers to Dostoevsky. As I mentioned to you, I teach Russian and my students come to class because they want to learn more, because some of them read Dostoevsky as part of the AP novel in American classrooms and they feel that this particular novel really made such a huge impression on them that they want to know more about Dostoevsky himself and the context of that in which his novel is set.
Speaker 1:Well, if we can capture the essence of this novel Crime and Punishment in one sentence or two. So what is the novel about, especially for you?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's Raskolnikov's the main protagonist. It's his journey towards finding the moral criterion. Because he starts out as the person who is very much obsessed with the idea of Superman and he wants to test the boundaries of his rational choice, his rational choice and at the same time, of course, the novel ends with him coming to understand that there are these untrespassable human values that no one can break, and it's all. He's ultimately led back to the fundamental concepts of Christian good and he's redeemed for faith because Sonia saves him. So this novel explores this moral dilemmas of sin and forgiveness and also whether the ends justify the means. Because he starts out, he commits the crime or the murder because he thinks it would be to the benefit of society. That's how he tries to rationalize it. So it's that conflict that sometimes a person is facing between something that he feels compelled to rationalize but at the same time that is not the obviously ethically acceptable choice.
Speaker 2:And Dostoevsky in his story for Raskolnikov, shows us that in a conflict between trying to rationalize something and your compass which for Raskolnikov and for Sonia is Christian love that would always be more true to your choices. Because Raskolnikov starts out as somebody who is super intellectual, right. He's wrapped up in his intellectual ideas, but he, ultimately, his guide to the spiritual awakening or rebirth, is Sonia, who is really living out of love. Sonia is not an intellectual, she really relies on her emotions and her heart more than anything. And so for Dostoevsky, there was this antinomy between the rational choice that is often a suspect, even in Brothers K right Ivan, who is the most tormented, he tries to rationalize a lot of his things, but Alyosha, who is guided by Christian, which is grounded in our Christian love and faith.
Speaker 1:Right. Well, the bleak portrait of Russian society in Crime and Punishment reflects the author's own complex life experiences and evolving ideas. Could you introduce the backdrop of Russian society at the time for us, you know, within which the young Dostoevsky was attracted by fancy ideas such as socialism and reform, and how was his ideas gradually changed and evolved by life circumstances? Right, and how is that kind of conflict conveyed in the novel?
Speaker 2:Well, yes, dostoevsky worked at the time, which was very turbulent for Russian history, because Russian history was still, you know, the society had absolute monarchy, still had served them, and, at the same time, part of the intellectual circles was already introduced to Western ideas. 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 the young intelligentsia intellectuals, the Petrashevsky circle, where these ideas were debated. Because, at the same time, though, society was very much backwards. I mean, imagine, we still had serfdom until, you know, the reforms of Alexander II, people could 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, yet enough people traveled abroad, because the Decembrist movement already happened. Right, we had the Decembrist revolt, the attempt to bring reforms, the Western-style reforms in the Russian society, which was, of course, that revolt in 1825 was suppressed, but the ideas of a more democratic society, more liberal society, the ideas that were first brought forth by French Revolution, the ideas that were first brought forth by French Revolution, they were already circulating.
Speaker 2:And so Dostoevsky joined the circle of Petrashevsky and his friends and subsequently, in 1949, he was arrested and condemned to death. So he was a young man, still in his 20s, but at the last moment the Tsar decided to replace the capital punishment with exile to Siberia. So imagine the effect that it made on Dostoevsky, who was waiting on a scaffold to be hanged because of the death sentence, and then suddenly the messenger comes and reads a letter by the Tsar saying that okay, these prisoners and his friends, they would be pardoned and the death capital, death punishment, would be replaced by exile. So Dostoevsky consequently spent many years in Siberia in hard labor, and as he emerged he obviously profoundly changed his beliefs. That's how he became even more focused on. You know, he was always very religious because of his deeply religious mother, but had this transformative experience, almost been forced to die and then spending so many years in hard labor?
Speaker 2:He then wrote the book which was called the Notes from the House of the Dead, because house of the dead were of course, the inmates, and in that book he writes a lot about, you know, the human nature. I mean, one of the topics that you mentioned was Dostoevsky vis-à-vis Tolstoy, and so they viewed human nature very differently. Because while Tolstoy was more with Rousseau, seeing human nature as more fundamentally good, dostoevsky thought there are these forces of darkness, there is a force of good and evil, and they are always fighting for the human soul. And he felt, dostoevsky, that one moral compass that the person can have in trying to make correct choices would be indeed Christian faith.
Speaker 2:And there is this very famous quote from Dostoevsky. He says if I were forced to be choosing between truth and Christ, I would rather remain with Christ than with truth. And what it really means is that Christ, for Dostoevsky, embodied this value of universal love, unconditional universal love, whereas truth was more something that you could rationalize. And you see that very well actually in Raskolnikov and Sonia, in that dichotomy, because Raskolnikov tries to rationalize his truth about helping the universe by getting rid of the pawnbroker right, and Sonia is just guided by her heart. So I think that, to go back to the original point, the exile, the first capital punishment, that moment of almost dying, and then years in Siberia in hard labor, certainly had a huge impact on Dostoevsky because he was really forced to. Then he renounced these Western ideas of radicalism and he went back to his Orthodox beliefs grounded deeply in Orthodoxy and Slavophilism. He just thought that Western ideas would not be appropriate for Russia.
Speaker 1:I'm just so struck by that dramatic moment of being executed. You know, that kind of almost crossed the borderline between life and death. It can be so transformative that it changes you. So, like you just said, in the novel Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov's character to critique the influence of utilitarianism and rational egoism that had taken hold among the Russian radicals of his time. So, considering Dostoevsky's intent to counteract these westernizing ideas, so how do you think his portrayal of the main character Raskolnikov challenges or reinforces the contemporary radical ideologies, particularly in relation to this idea of a superior individual justified in committing acts for the so-called perceived greater good?
Speaker 2:Well, this is of course a central question and the idea of a superior individual who will justify his, whatever the murder actually for the greater good is also present in Balzac. As you know, there's a lot of research written on Balzac and Dostoevsky is very similar to Raskolnikov vis-à-vis Pergurio when Votrem says to Rastignac about killing at the duel the brother of Victorine Taillefer and then he will become an heir to immense fortune. So that idea that, okay, one murder because it would not be really of course a true duel, it would be a murder can really change the life. That's the moral dilemma which was also very interesting for Balzac, because Balzac was also very interested in human nature. Then Dostoevsky takes that idea a step further because Raskolnikov, of course, for Rastignyak, is just imaginary. He's forced to contemplate that, but that murder never happens For Raskolnikov.
Speaker 2:He takes it a step further because he actually decides to go through with the crime and it's interesting because the crime is committed early in the novel and then really the majority of text is Raskolnikov coming to terms with that, because the event happens if we think of it as whodunit. You know, dostoevsky took his plots. He was an avid reader of newspapers and he would read the criminal chronicles in the newspapers, and then he will take the material from them. So the criminal element whodunit.
Speaker 2:If you think of it as a spurn of a detective novel, that happened in the first, probably 100 pages very quickly. But then the bulk of the novel and why the novel became so famous is because you are with Raskolnikov on his psychological journey. He has to really process and come to terms with what he has done and he becomes like physically ill, as you remember. So his inner turmoil has this physical effects in his sickness and then other characters that he meets again. He meets Sonia, the person who is completely opposite to him, and it's significantly Sonia, the fallen woman, the prostitute, who leads Raskolnikov to spiritual rebirth. How is she able to do it? Well, she reads him the Bible. She reads him the chapter about Lazarus.
Speaker 2:So there is this metaphorical narrative that allows Raskolnikov, just like Lazarus, to see anew the consequences of what he has done. And of course in the epilogue it's only in the epilogue when he's also in Siberia with Sonia, when he's serving at hard labor, then he becomes a new man. He suddenly finds the inner peace. It's very important that he only becomes at peace with himself not only after he confessed but after he starts to service his sentence at the epilogue. So the choices of Raskolnikov himself and his fate. It's a great testament against radicalism. For Dostoevsky, ultimately, it's ethics, the really traditional concepts of biblical commandments thou shalt not kill that really supersede everything else. 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 testament to falsehood of these ideas.
Speaker 1:Right, I truly endorse this novelistic idea of viewing or using the novel as a sort 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 that struck me most is this chapter is in the very beginning of the novel that he received this long letter from his mom telling him basically hey, son, don't worry, you know, we got you covered. Your sister is going to marry a very rich man. And he also followed, you know, this long letter with this kind of almost like a manual for the readers to dissect. You know, to read between the lines, you know what's really behind this letter, and I think that's just amazing. So in what ways shall we consider Dostoevsky as a highly skilled craftsman, right, you know? Shall we consider Dostoevsky as a highly skilled craftsman, right, you know he is always conscious of the formal pattern in his novelistic art.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, the letter actually is an excellent example, because that's also another piece that is very similar to Le Père Goriot. Because you know Jean de Castignac, how is he able to survive in Paris? Well, because his mother and his sisters, they sent him money and the letters. So it's really as we spoke before, dostoevsky was a big admirer of Balzac, so that's taken also very similarly. It's the same idea that mother looks up to Rodion, just like the family of Rastignac who look up with admiration to that brother, to the son who is in Paris, you know, making his career and so forth. So similar, but in terms of Dostoevsky's novelistic art, one would say that his novels as excellent as masterpieces of psychological realism, because on one hand, he was really the master in depicting the psychological states.
Speaker 2:You mentioned and we will talk more about it the image of the city, because really, another thing that Dostoevsky brought to literature, he brought the multiplicity of perspectives right, the polyphony, because there's not one but many, many voices in the novel and you cannot really say, okay, this is the domineering narrative or this is the leading voice, because you have multiple viewpoints. Multiplicity of viewpoints, and it was Mikhail Bakhtin, the famous Russian theorist, who called Dostoevsky's novels the polyphonic novels, because they have this many, many voices who are simultaneously present, so one event would be simultaneously viewed from multiple perspectives. And the same other thing that allows him to be such a great writer is because the city, the image of the city, is always present in his novels and it's not like a backdrop. It's similar also to Balzac, because when we think of Balzac novel we think of Paris, which really takes on a very important role in Balzacian narrative, because what happens in Paris doesn't happen in the provinces.
Speaker 2:Similarly in Petersburg, the myth we can talk about Petersburg as really the active character in the novel, because Raskolnikov is forced to spend the summer that is dreadfully hot, as you remember in the city and that's also it contributes to his agitated state of mental state, because the rich Peter's books is able to go to the country and thus seek respite from the heat and all this urban heat that is now present. So when Raskolnikov walks around in the beginning he's already half delirious. Even before he commits a murder he'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, almost the main character in the novel right.
Speaker 1:We hope you're enjoying this episode. In the second half, dr Titus will talk about the author's use of third-person omniscient perspective among other polyphonic narrative voices coexisting in the novel. If you desire to complete this episode, we encourage you to subscribe at theglobalnovelcom slash subscribe. Thank you so much for listening.