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Abstract:

The article analyzes the episode in which Razumikhin suggests that Raskolnikov could escape hunger and poverty by translating from German half of a pamphlet, which he eventually calls “Is a Woman a Human Being?” While researchers have discovered that Dostoevsky was alluding to Eliseev’s “Inner Review” and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim’s book “On the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex,” they have interpreted this reference merely as a nod to the contemporary relevance of the “woman question” during the novel’s creation and proposed that Dostoevsky considered Eliseev’s direct reference to Agrippa’s book as a deliberate hoax. The article shows that this “funny” and “unimportant” episode is indeed meaningful in the novel’s ideological framework, and it was conceived by Dostoevsky in nearly its final form from the outset, representing one of the core ideological pillars of Crime and Punishment. The article demonstrates that Dostoevsky read and extensively used not only Eliseev’s “Review” (e.g., to remove the romantic flair from the theory of the “two categories”) but also Agrippa’s treatise. This is evidenced by allusions to passages not quoted by Eliseev: their presence in key moments of the novel remains obscure unless Agrippa’s text is considered, and conversely, their meaning becomes clear when read alongside it. An example is the reference to Abraham preceding Raskolnikov’s heartfelt address to Sonya in the Epilogue. The article further suggests that Dostoevsky likely read other works by Agrippa von Nettesheim as well.

Keywords: Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladova, structure of a deep text, books in a book, characters’ readings, characters’ writings, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, On the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex, Grigory Eliseev, Internal Review, Song of the Virgin Mary, Children of Abraham