The Ressurrection of Lazarus as a hermeneutical key to the novel Crime and Punishment

Abstract

The Ressurrection of Lazarus as a hermeneutical key to the novel Crime and Punishment. – The subject of our study is the intertextual analysis of the 11^th chapter of John’s gospel and Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Our point of departure is the hypothesis that the whole novel Crime and Punishment may be regarded as a literary interpretation of John 11. It will be demonstrated how this biblical passage forms a basic structure of the whole novel and may therefore be considered as a hermeneutical key to the theological reading of this literary work. Our analysis will deal with the symbolic structure of Crime and Punishment which draws from the New Testament symbolic language of the Resurrection of Lazarus in J 11.