Pecularities of functioning of the biblical text in a novel's plot: on the problem of interpretation of biblical quotations and allusions in Dostoevsky's “Crime and punishment”

This article analyzes the interpretations of biblical texts in Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”. It reveals the cases of ambiguity in determining the sources and the character of functioning of biblical allusions and quotations in the novel’s plot, examines the reasons for the textural discrepancies, and determines criteria for studying the biblical text in Dostoevsky’s works. For a more complete and accurate understanding of intertextual relationships, it is important to study biblical intertexts not only on a textual but on plot and figurative levels too, as far as the semantics of certain quotations and allusions is ultimately determined by the characteristics of their insertion into the author’s text and their interaction with the cultural tradition that is represented not only in the biblical text, but in spiritual literature and the folk perception of biblical stories as well.