INQUISITOR GENERALIS: BETWEEN THE WILL FOR POWER AND THE FREEDOM FROM POWER Cover Image

INQUSITOR GENERALIS: ИЗМЕЂУ ВОЉЕ ЗА МОЋ И СЛОБОДЕ ОД МОЋИ
INQUISITOR GENERALIS: BETWEEN THE WILL FOR POWER AND THE FREEDOM FROM POWER

Author(s): Jana М. Aleksić, Sergej Beuk
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Theology and Religion, Religion and science , Russian Literature, Theory of Literature, Sociology of Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Универзитет у Крагујевцу
Keywords: text;culture;society;history;literary field;power;authority;will;freedom;Truth

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, we observe the chapter “The Great Inquisitor” in the novel The Brothers Karamazov as a literary field in which the dominant discourse of Power, the Church elite, represented by the Grand Inquisitor, is confronted by the subversive aspirations of marginalized social groups, embodied in the figure of Christ. Initially considering that the “poem” is an eminent text of culture, in which a vast number of textual clues have been absorbed, primarily the Holy Bible, we discover how the character of the Grand Inquisitor was constructed from the generic-hermeneutic angle. This implies a contextual theological, (inter)textual and semantic framework. In the central part of the paper, the focus of our analysis is the mechanisms by which institutions of power control subversive elements and aspects of their rebellion from the perspective of New Historicism. At the end of the paper, we point to the histori-cal and civilizational implications of an antagonistically conceived narrative on the problems of human freedom, action, and the implementation of power in history and, consequently, the organization of the (contemporary) world.

  • Issue Year: XXI/2020
  • Issue No: 72
  • Page Range: 65-78
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Serbian