Article

Name: «The living dead» in fantastic novels of the Silver age («Shadow of Phyllida» by M. Kuzmin, «Love is stronger than death» by Merezhkovsky)

Authors: Chvertko Svetlana Yuryevna

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The paper investigates the transformation of the plot about the «living corpse» and its varieties in the stories of the Silver Age writers. The investigation is illustrated by the text of Mikhail Kuzmin «Shadow of Phyllida» and that of D. Merezhkovsky «Love is stronger than death». The short novel by Kuzmin with its ironic manner of narration and double interpretation of the dénouement resembles a stylized romantic novel which shows the reader an unstable borderline between life and death, acting on the stage and reality. «The Living dead» in the novel by Merezhkovsky was born only in the subjective perception of inert consciousness. The author shows a man’s fear of marvels and reinterprets the image of death. Death is a means of helping to reunite lovers. Works of Kuzmin and Merezhovsky resemble in the special style: application of other eras and countries, reminders of romantic novels, in which the appearance of the «living dead» is a special technique, emphasizing the final point.

Keywords: fantastic novel, symbolism, plot, motive, horror, the living dead

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