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If I have a quotation that, within itself, quotes another source, how do I write an in-text citation for the nested quote?

English Language & Usage Asked by thelargestwalrus on December 7, 2020

While writing a literary criticism essay on Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, I cited another critique that quoted the novel itself. Within the outline I submitted to the teacher, the entire quote was this:

" “In contrast to the dusty, hot, stifling, and crowded city, a fitting setting for Raskolnikov’s oppressive and murderous thoughts, we find, for example, "the greenness and the freshness" of the Petersburg islands (Dostoevsky 53) … The natural surroundings reawakened in him the feelings of his youth, through which he came close to avoiding his crime and to finding regeneration without having to pass through the cycle of crime and punishment” (Gibian).

The "Dost…53" is the page number for the quotation from the novel, but it was not part of the original statement from Gibian, who (as far as I can tell) either never cited that quote or the citations were not attached for the online catalogue I found his critique in. The teacher made it explicitly clear that the page numbers for those kinds of quotes are required, so I put the "Dost…53" there and she had no complaints. On having a peer review my essay however, they seemed to think that the in-text citation for that page number should go elsewhere, but did not clarify. How am I supposed to cite this in accordance with the MLA style?

One Answer

I visited the site suggested by @Ram Pillai. It suggests that you use single quotes around the quote from the novel. My experience studying literature in graduate school, where we were required to use MLA style, corroborates this.

Answered by Isabel Archer on December 7, 2020

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