THE INTERPRETATIVE POTENTIAL OF THE SPATIAL IMAGES OF DESERT IN A. CARTER'S NOVELS

Abstract

The article made an attempt to comprehensively analyze the image of the desert in A. Carter's works. “Nights at the Circus” and “The Passion of New Eve” were chosen for the analysis as the novels in which this image is represented the most vividly. The work considers the theories of ecocriticism that give us an opportunity to take a fresh look at the meaning of desert as a phenomenon in nature and its symbolism in literature, philosophical interpretations of the literary images of desert lands and literary observations of the researchers of A. Carter's creativity on this issue. The analysis led to the conclusion that the English writer, first of all, uses the landscape to picture the mental state of the heroes of her work. The desert, assuming certain emptiness, reduces the personality of the characters to the position of “tabula rasa”. So this landscape becomes a catalyst of spiritual searches and transformations of the main characters.