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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

MYTHOPOETICS OF THE MODERN RUSSIAN NOVEL (ON V. PELEVIN'S PROSE MATERIAL)

OLGA YU. OSMUKHINA,

SVETLANA P. GUDKOVA,

ELENA A. SHARONOVA,

ELENA A. KAZEEVA

National Research Mordovia State University, 68
Bolshevistskaya Street, Saransk 430005. Republic of Mordovia,
Russia
email:

osmukhina@inbox.ru, ,

sveta_gud@mail.ru,

sharon.ov@mail.ru,

kazeeva-ea@yandex.ru

This study was supported by National Research Mordovia State University, Saransk,
Russian Federation.

____________________________________________________

Abstract: This article analyzes the strategy of artistic transformation of mythological
material in mythopoetics elements of the author's text in Pelevin's novels. In particular,
we investigate specifics of animal images interpretation in "Numbers" using
comparative historical method and method of integral analysis of literary work. It is
established that by beating the images of animals from different mythological
traditions, V. Pelevin in "Numbers" constructs his own neomyth, part of which
becomes the central character of the novel as a new mythological hero, taking a series
of tests. We have discovered that in "The sacred book of the Werewolf" novel the
author leads to play with meanings, new understanding of archetypal images and
motives by rethinking the myth using postmodern techniques.

Key words: Russian Modern prose; V. Pelevin; novel; myth; mythopoetics; neomyth;
motive; device.

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1 Introduction

Appeal to mythology, the rethinking of mythological images and
plots presents as one of the key features of modern Russian
prose. As O. Osmukhina rightly notes, "the mythological"
component "becomes a part of poetics of the author's work"
(Osmukhina 2013, p. 228). It is precisely “the artistic
transformation of the original mythological material (antique,
Christian etc.) into myth-poetic elements of the author's text”
that is characteristic of Russian prose of the turn of the XX-XXI
centuries (novels by V. Sorokin, Boris Akunin, D. Lipskerov
etc.), where use of "allusions, intertextuality, citations, play with
pretexts” (Osmukhina 2013, p. 228-230; Osmukhina 2012,
p. 186-189) leads to creation of a very specific author's neo-
myth.

Myth-poetics is traditionally referred to as the conscious turn of
artists of the word to various artistic techniques of "mythological
genesis", its images and themes, "subjected to creative rethinking
and, accordingly, moving from the mythological into the myth-
poetic sphere, that is, becoming part of the poetics of the artistic
work" (Soldatkina 2009, p. 8). It is the artistic transformation of
the original mythological material into myth-poetic elements of
the author's text that seems most significant, since this is the
aspect where myth-poetics demonstrates ability for global
generalizations at content related and structural levels of a piece.

2 Materials and methods

Mythology in the literature of the turn of the XX-XXI centuries
is a very special phenomenon, which is both an artistic medium
and a certain outlook, which becomes one of the key ways of
perceiving reality by one or another artist.  In this connection,
numerous myths of the "new time" are created, according to
D. E. Maksimov's fair observation, processed "through
individual consciousness with its introspection and author's free
attitude to the depicted" (Maksimov 1986, p. 203).  Thus, "neo-
mythologism" is created (Mintz 1978, p. 76), numerous author’s
neo-myths, which are not at all aimed at recreating mythological
thinking, but seek to reveal the internal structures and
mechanisms of modern socio-cultural consciousness.

The study of myth has a long history in science (not only in
literary criticism, but also in philosophy and culturology) the
myth looked at as one of the universal categories of human
existence, the fundamental component of human thinking, and,
at the same time, as one of the determinants of the existential
norms in the existence of an individual in society, (Shafranskaya
2008, p. 473-481). At the same time, artistic literature is

analyzed by Russian and Western mythology researchers -
E. M. Meletinsky (Meletinsky 2012), M. Adamovich
(Adamovich), M. Eliade (Eliade 1976) and R. Barths (Barthes
1972). They view literature not just as an indirect realization of
myth, but also as an area of movement of images, motifs, plots,
myth-genesis techniques from mythological into myth-poetic
sphere, as their conscious use and rethinking by poets, prose
writers and playwrights.

3 Literature Review

Results of the study of mythological images and plots
transformation of into author's text in V. Pelevin's prose appear
to be original and new since no one before us has studied this
aspect of the problem. In a generic context, O. Osmukhina
(Osmukhina

2013;

Osmukhina

2012),

Ya. Soldatkina

(Soldatkina 2009), E. Shafranskaya (Shafranskaya 2008),
M. Adamovich (Adamovich 2002), A. Tsyganov (Tsyganov)
looked at it. The domestic experience in studies of the author's
neo-myth in general and neo-myth in Pelevin's prose in
particular can indeed be used in world science, especially in
Slavic studies. The prospect of studying myth-poetics involves
the use of scientific achievements of this article.

4 Results and Discussions

The most remarkable in the aspect of myth-poetics is the work of
one of the most popular writers in Russia V.O. Pelevin,
translated into all European languages. Virtually in all novels of
the prose writer - from Omon Ra, Empire V and Batman Apollo
to Love to the Three Zuckerbrins, The Ranger and Lamps of
Methuselah - in the framework of postmodern poetics,
philosophical and religious treatises, fairy tales and urban
folklore, Celtic, Germanic and Scandinavian myths, Chinese
fairy tales and numerology, Buddhism and Taoism, shamanism
and yogic techniques, classical literature and mass culture
(Ditkovskaya 2002; Safronova 2004; Chepelevskaya 2006;
Tsyganov). At the same time, the writer addresses the content of
myths, their heroes, using the hidden and previously unrealized
potential of mythological thinking: synthesizing various
mythological motives, "turning inside out" well-known stories,
he constructs his own author's neo-myth.

In this context, V. Pelevin's novel Numbers is indicative.
Already the main character of the novel Muss is similar to a cat:
"Muss was a charming young woman, to the astonishment like a
cat. She had big, as in fear, eyes and an amazing hairdo, which
consisted of a short haircut and six "antennas" - tufts of hair
woven with the strongest gel into long parallel needles ...  These
swaying antennas resembled Steppe's cat's whiskers, which
seemed to him all the time-Muss is just meowing" (Pelevin
2016, p. 34-35).

Moreover, in the Latin script the name of the heroine is written
"Meowth", which is phonetically consonant with the feline
meow.  About the feline nature Muss is also evidenced by her
identification with the Pokémon Meowth - "this is such a cat,
very cute. You will laugh, like Muss Julianovna. The same
arrows stick out from the hairstyle" (Pelevin 2016, p. 265). In
modern mass culture, Meowth is a villain from a series of
games, manga and anime, and various animated and print
adaptations of the Pokémon series, which looks like a cat
(Meowth). Moreover, Meowth was a pupil of Team R boss
Giovanni, whose name, incidentally, is also phonetically close to
the Pelevin’s "patronymic" of the heroine.

Note that the image of Muss, in addition, is quite comparable
with the figure of the goddess-cat in Egyptian mythology. The
goddess Bast patronized fire, the moon, childbirth, fertility,
pleasures, embodied the feminine and maternal origin.
Represented Bast, usually in the form of a woman with a cat's
head, in her right hand contained a musical instrument - a
systrum, in the left - a mirror Hator. In addition, she had four

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