The seminar will focus on Raskolnikov's dream about a mare being beaten, which, for a while, makes him recoil from the murder he's been plotting and planning (Crime and Punishment, Part 1, Chapter 5). This Dostoevskyan nightmare version of the parable of the Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke explores questions at the heart of his own work and of human experience: who is my neighbor and what does the suffering and pain of others have to do with me?

Prof. Liza Knapp (Columbia) will lead this Living the Core seminar.