SEMANTIC COMPLEX OF FOOD/FOOD IN I. A. GONCHAROV’S NOVEL “THE CLIFF”

Interest in food as a fundamental aspect of being was identified in Russian science in the late XX - early XXI centuries. The archetypal meanings of food/food, realizing the chain of “life - death - resurrection”, go back to the global opposition chaos / cosmos, realized in the act of cooking and eating food. I. A. Goncharov’s novel, connected with the manor culture, is full of descriptions of various meals, mentioning menus, dishes, products that perform various functions.Thus, the core of the food motif - milk pulls together the “beginnings” and “ends” of the novel, exposing its dramatic nodes and performing a structure-forming function. The “bird” motif reveals the characters in a characterological way: Marfenka - in the idyllic (in the semantic chain “rose cherry jam - cherry - girl-flower”), Vera - in the dramatic (“water - wine - watermelon - milk”). The plot, where the “idyllic” is blown up by the “dramatic”, is realized in the fate of the Grandmother, who combines these principles: “false duality” (Grandmother - Marfenka) is replaced by the true one (“milk” in a similar gesture of Faith and Grandmother contains a hint of a repeated female drama). Male characters go back to the archetype of the fairy-tale - Gobbler - helper in getting a bride.The rivalry of Raisky with Volokhov is exposed in the dream reality, where meals turn into hunting. The unwritten novel of Paradise is reduced to a parody by women hunters after him, from which he finds salvation in the “living water” of grandmother’s truth.