The catharsis beyond Aristotle: terror and compassion in the romance-tragedy Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky

Authors

  • Ana Gabriela Dutra da Silva UEL – Universidade Estadual de Londrina. Mestre em Estudos Literários – Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras. Londrina, PR – Brasil.
  • Luciana Brito UENP – Universidade Estadual do Norte do Paraná. Jacarezinho, PR – Brasil.

Keywords:

Dostoyevsky, Romance-tragedy, Catharsis, Crime and Punishment,

Abstract

Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky (1861-1881) can not only be considered the father of the modern novel, according to Bakhtin, but also the responsible for creating a new narrative form called “romance-tragedy” by Vyatcheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (2007 apud COSTA, 2008). Considering this new genre as the union of techniques used in the modern novel with ancient tragedy and the dramatic traces contained in Dostoyevsky’s works, this article aims to analyze the effect of catharsis in the novel Crime and Punishment, published in 1866, in order to compare it with the design of purification of the feelings of terror and compassion raised by the drama, which was conceived by Aristotle.

Published

30/01/2015

Issue

Section

Contributions