В «мрачном» и «таинственном» мире произведений Михаила Елизарова (безумие и «черная магия» в повести Ногти)
In “the dark” and “mysterious” world of Mikhail Elizarov’s literary works (madness and “black magic” in the story Fingernails)

Summary/Abstract: Mikhail Elizarov (born 1973 in Ukraine) undoubtedly belongs to the most “bizarre” and controversial contemporary Russian writers (more precisely, he is a Russian and Ukrainian writer). Elizarov is also known as a musician and a songwriter. He is the winner of literary award The Russian Booker Prize (in 2008) for his novel The Librarian (this novel was called one of the most controversial prize-winning novels). Elizarov’s literary works “balance” on the verge of postmodernist and realistic practice; the writer is known for scandalous but intellectual high-energy prose (sometimes he is compared to Nikolai Gogol, sometimes – to Vladimir Sorokin). The purpose of this article is to show and discuss distinguishing features of Elizarov’s prose, to identify central motifs and themes in his selected literary works. The story Fingernails is analyzed in this paper. Special attention is paid to Elizarov’s conception of madness and abnormality, and also to his point of view on relationship between “normal” and “abnormal” (strange, different from what is usual or expected).

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