A Few Words on the Precursor of Fantasy – Ivan Karamazov

Abstract

This paper aims to analyse The Legend of the Great Inquisitor from a perspective of genre used by an author – Ivan Karamazov. The Legend can be referred to as fantasy (an anti-utopia). Taking into consideration the ideal of Inquisitor and the particular pieces of the text, one may state that the poem constitutes the prototype of anti-utopian narration. Having employed the notions of agent and patiens, we endeavour to sketch out the general scheme of such narration. The second part of the paper focuses on a few anti-utopias (Brave New World by A. Huxley, Matrix by the Wachowski Brothers, Futu.re by D. Glukhovsky) and aims to identify there the elements which correspond to the particular schemes.