Information about the author: 

Abstract:

Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is analyzed here not as a work translated into choreography, but from the perspective of Dostoevsky’s own “choreography” of visualized metaphors of movements, which constitutes the encoded text of the novel. In this article, the “choreography of the text” refers to the verbal description of various motions, gestures, and positions, whereas the “text of choreography” refers to the interpretation of their meaning. In other words, it involves reading the visible actions depicted in the narrative as another unwritten, yet indirectly expressed, text. Dostoevsky frequently relies on visuality and, instead of using words, describes silent movements. These movements are symbolic and silently convey inner experiences, emotions, and thoughts, presented in the form of clearly visible events in the external world. A “sketch” for Crime and Punishment, in terms of the “choreography of text” and the theme of Raskolnikov’s doubleness, can be found in The Double, where the whole fifth chapter records a complex, dynamic “dance” of bifurcation. Like the novella, the novel concerns the inner life of its main character and the difficult path from one Raskolnikov to the other. This metaphysical journey is presented as a physical one, in which the contradictory movements of the hero’s soul gain visibility while going through it. It seems the writer truly possesses not only the art of the word, but also the one of choreography and he is able to speak of the most essential things using the language of the human body. At times, the culmination points of the leading message of the novel are expressed in short but deeply symbolic words; at others, they are shown rather than spoken. Since the true meanings of the text are not on the surface but hidden within the symbolism of words and movements, these details require close attention and a thorough analysis—the focus of this essay.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Sterne, Balzac, visual metaphor, metaphysics, choreography.