The concept of ‟void” in the Sasha Krugosvetov`s novel ‟Candide’s Happiness” (comparative analysis)

Abstract

The semantic ‟void” of actual reality is the most important idea of postmodernism, which is associated with the recognition of the relativity of any ideas, philosophies, meanings, the concepts of which are ‟simulacrum”. Over the decades of the existence of Russian literary postmodernism, the interpretation of the relationship between man and reality, thing and concept has been rethought in relation to world culture. With the help of a comparative analysis of the novels ‟Candide's Happiness” by Sasha Krugosvetov and ‟Clay Machine Gun” by Victor Pelevin, respectively, the content of the concept ‟void”, which creates the central image in both texts, was revealed, its semantic and functional characteristics were studied. In the novel “Clay Machine Gun” the concept of “void” is involved in the formation of an existential plot associated with the subjective desire of the characters to get out of “void”, because it participates in overcoming the inevitable socio-cultural self-identifications, allows one building an image of plurality as opposed to binary oppositions. In the novel by Sasha Krugosvetov, when describing the image of reality, the basical narrative strategy is a game with the reader, based on the correlation of functional copies of objects, disguised objects, illusory objects and virtual copies, and the main methods of their presentation are to demonstrate metaphors literally and absurd. ‟Void” in Sasha Krugosvetov's novel is not only an ontological characteristic that blurs the opposition of ‟existence” and ‟non-existence”, but also a feature of style, moving away from any particular style due to the development and appropriation of too many stylistic markers.