Profane Challenge and Orthodox Response in Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment

Presents for the first time an examination of the great novel as a work aimed at winning back "target readers", young contemporary radicals, from Utilitarianism, nihilism, and Utopian Socialism. dostoevsky framed the battle in the context of the Orthodox Church and oral tradition versus the West. He relied on knowledge of the Gospels as text recieved orally, forcing readers to react emotionally, not rationally, and thus undermining the very basis of his opponents' arguments. Dostoevsky saves Raskol'nikov, underscoring the inadequancy of rational thought and reminding his readers of a heritage discarded at their peril. This volume should be of special interest to secondary and university students, as well as to readers interested in literature, particularly, in Russian literature, and Dostoevsky.