Mythopoetics in the novels of Sasha Sokolov: From the ontological myth of A School for Fools to the deconstruction of the myth of Palisandria

Abstract

The article examines mythopoetics in Sasha Sokolov’s novels A School for Fools and Palisandria. In the 20th century authors widely turn to neo-mythologism in its various manifestations – from the myth-making of prose writers and poets of the beginning of the century to the nationalfolklore type of mythologism in the prose of the era of stagnation. In Sokolov’s novels, the fi rst branch of the development of mythopoetics continues in the form of modernist myth in A School for Fools and postmodern deconstruction of myth in Palisandria. The article shows that Sokolov’s first and last novels have contrasting forms of mythology. In A School for Fools, via a cyclic chronotope, the author models the ontological myth of eternal return, in which the main mythologems are metamorphoses and the author’s mythologem of the Sender of the Wind. In this myth, the creator is the main character of the novel. In Palisandria the opposite process is observed – the dispelling of the myth of eternal return and the formation of the myth of “timelessness” through numerous simulacra-incarnations of the main character. The author of the article talks about the change in the principles of mythologization from the fi rst to the third novel – from the ontological myth of A School for Fools Sokolov comes to the deconstruction of myth and postmodern negation in Palisandria. Sokolov’s novels are deeply mythopoetic. In his work, Sokolov repeatedly turns to mythological images and allusions from classical myths, as well as literary archetypes. Based on all of the above, it can be argued that neomythologism is one of the main principles of Sokolov’s oeuvre. Using the example of Sasha Sokolov’s texts, the article shows one of the ways of transforming neomythologism from modernism to postmodernism.

Keywords

• mythopoetics
• sasha sokolov
• ontological myth
• myth of eternal return
• cyclic chronotope
• initiation
• deconstruction of myth