“Nel nome del padre”. Ripensare l’origine tra Ricoeur e Dostoevskij

This essay aims at investigating a possible dialogue between Ricoeur and Dostoevsky starting from the symbol of the father. Starting from Freud’s psychoanalytic interpretation of the Brothers Karamazov in which is expressed an archaeological investigation of Dostoevsky’s personality the essay develops at first the critique moved by Ricoeur to this interpretation. In Ricoeur then it is possible to find a renewed reading of the theme of the father, inasmuch as he overcomes the deconstructive dimension of the Freudian Oedipus, moving towards a rediscovery of the symbol in its relationship with consciousness and the sacred. Thus, this interpretation makes it possible to reactivate the sense of the symbol of the father in Dostoevsky’s Karamazov. In the last masterpiece of the Russian novelist this symbol is transfigured into a new dimension, as an original gift that overcomes the negative dimension of the parricide.