Il significato del «nome non-detto» del «Prigioniero» nella narrazione del Grande Inquisitore dostoevskiano

Abstract

In Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor (hereafter GI), the figure of the «prisoner » is generally taken to be Jesus Christ, although the text itself fails to precisely identify this figure. The absence in GI of a Proper Name for the «prisoner», together with other textual details, is crucial to the narrative’s intrinsic structural ambiguity. Despite the author’s project and his later comments, GI does not represent a dialogue between the old inquisitor and Christ, but a monologue before a silent, lofty figure, who may be Christ – or may not be. As in Dostoevsky’s literary work in general, ambiguity is the main mark of a dominant «poetics of paradox».