Garmash L. Thanatalogical Motifs in the Novels by the Russian Symbolists: F. Sologub, V.Y. Bryusov, A. Bely.

Object - literary thanatology in the novels by Fyodor Sologub ("Bad Dreams", "Pitty Demon", "Created Legend"), Valery Bryusov ("The Fiery Angel", "The Altar of Victory", "Jupiter Defeated"), the prose by A. Bely (symphonies, novels "The Silver Dove", "Petersburg", "Moscow"); the goal - systematic analysis of the thanatology motifs in the novels by the Russian symbolists from the point of view of their semantics, poetics and functions in the literary text; methods - hermeneutical, structural, comparative, typological, philological and mythopoeic analysis; novelty - specific character of artistic comprehension of one of the most important problems of the human existence - the problem of death by the Russian Symbolists has been considered, the range of theoretical questions which are necessary for the analysis of thanatological motifs in the literary text has been determined; typology of thanatological motifs has been given; conceptual level of thanatological motifs and ways of their representation have been described; archetypical and mythopoetic semantic levels of thanatological motifs have been revealed; connection of thanatological motifs with other motifs such as motifs of love, friendship, chance, fate, etc. has been identified; structural components of thanatological motifs have been determined; thanatological motifs from the point of view of their role in the narrative organization, temporal order, and plot structure have been considered; peculiarities of usage of thanatological motifs in the contexts of different modi of artistry have been described; philosophical and religious grounds of thanatological problematics, represented in the prose of the Russian Symbolists, have been outlined; complex analyses of thanatological motifs, conducted on the material of the novels by F. Sologub, V.Y. Bryusov, and A. Bely, have revealed the main peculiarities of semantics and poetics of thanatological motifs and outlined the range of motifs which in aggregate form "artistic model of death" characteristic for Russian Symbolism; the results - can be used for further studies of the 20th century Russian prose, the literary thanatology, the history of literature of the late XIX and the early XX century, the history of literary criticism, for the textbooks and special courses; area - Philology.