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Abstract:

The article is devoted to theatrical adaptations of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment staged in Serbia during the first half of the 20th century. These productions are analyzed in the broad context of the transmedial storytelling of the novel, situated within an intercultural paradigm. In the second part of the article, the author focuses on the analysis of two productions of the 1930s: the first one performed in the Serbian language with Serbian actors; the second one by a touring troupe, performed in Russian with Russian actors. Using the method of reconstruction, based on the creation of artifacts, the author applies to these cultural events a multidisciplinary theory of photography and illustration, in order to identify a connection between the above-mentioned productions and the original text of Dostoevsky’s novel. Having attempted to determine the originality of the Serbian stage productions, the article comes to the conclusion that they are basically rooted in the original Russian culture. Meanwhile terms of unique “Balkan recoding” of Crime and Punishment can only be applied to its poetic transformations in Serbo-Croatian “Zenitists” artwork.

Keywords: Crime and Punishment, interculture, transmedial storytelling, Serbian theatre, staging, dramatization, photo, illustration.