Polyphony and syncrisis techniques in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment:

Question

Dostoevsky uses the techniques of polyphony and syncrisis in his novel Crime and punishment, and as i understood them in brief is that polyphony means all characters are equal in importance and their issues all valid in the novel and syncrisis means in every character there are different traits and every one is both good and bad, but I need more explanation on this and my questions are firstly: Polyphony means multi-voices in the novel with equal importance but can it means also multi-voices inside one single character like the hero Raskolnikoff who has to voices or forces fighting inside his mind which are committing crime and Fear, so is this another kind of polyphony including two different traits both valid and important inside the character? The second question is: did I get the right meaning of syncrisis as different traits and qualities inside the characters? or does it mean that the character judged differently by the other character in the novel according to their points of view? Finally there is another technique in the novel called anacrisis and it is defined as "a mean for eliciting and provoking the words of one's interlocutor forcing him to express his opinion thoroughly". Can you please explain what that means and I would like to give me examples from the novel about every technique of these three so it will be much more easy to understand them by examples.

Now this is my kind of question! I can't get to this until tomorrow, but I will. - Jeremias, Jul 5, 2011

Answer 1

Oops, Sorry - I posted an answer before I read the whole question.

I understand the question now. It will be a long answer, if I get the time...

I'ill be really grateful to you if you could find any online literature guidence site that can supply explanation about this and post the answer here or if you yourself could answer that depending on your sources so that i can start reading novel properly - --misterlonely--winterdays---, Jul 6, 2011

There are some public domain college lectures floating around torrent sites on C&P, but personally I haven't heard any that go into a lot of detail. Could be worth a look though - rabbitwho, Jul 6, 2011

I think after reading the novel arefully I got the answer, polyphony means that voices wheather inside the hero personality or the voices of people around him who mirror his thoughts these voices are all equally important in the novel like in symphony and - --misterlonely--winterdays---, Aug 18, 2011

this term polyphony is musical term after all and the other term syncrisis means the various opinion elicited about certain themes in the novel like opinions about Darwin ideology or Libral ideology...etc. also opinions about the characters like blaming a - --misterlonely--winterdays---, Aug 18, 2011

girl (sonia in the novel for example) for working as a prostitute or not to blame,,,etc. so these opinions all in the novel are made in dialogical way and the equality of their importance is what makes the novel polyphonic. and about the last term which - --misterlonely--winterdays---, Aug 18, 2011

is called anacrisis, it means provoking the character's ideas through mentioning what exactly is there in the character's mind so that he speak them into the open in rejoinders or speaking about some idology that the character oppses is so he speaks his - --misterlonely--winterdays---, Aug 18, 2011

counter ideology. thank you for help. ^_^ - --misterlonely--winterdays---, Aug 18, 2011