INTERTEXTUAL CONNECTIONS WITH DANTE'S "DIVINE COMEDY" IN THOMAS LIGOTTI'S STORY "THE BELLS WILL SOUND FOREVER"

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to study the short story by the contemporary American writer Thomas Ligotti in terms of intertextuality. The conclusion is made that the story contains allusions to Dante Alighieri’s poem “The Divine Comedy” and its second part “Purgatory”. Therefore, the main methods of the study were intertextual and typological. The article emphasizes that the importance of the resonance of T. Ligotti’s story with this part of the Divine Comedy lies in the fact that Dante introduced the image of Purgatory (officially, the Catholic Church recognized its existence after his death) as an image of a place of hope and salvation, repentance and choice, where the souls of the repentant can work on their final redemption. All this is relevant to the story of the protagonist Ligotti. The main attention of the author of the article was focused on the study of the figurative system of the work, namely, the images of the narrator and the narrator, as well as Miss Peak, the owner of the hotel, whose stay had fatal consequences for the narrator. The description of the appearance, clothing, and movements of the characters in both works is studied. It is concluded that the use of allegories, metaphors and symbolism from Dante’s poem gave the author of the story the opportunity not only to reveal the themes of atonement, purification and the consequences of sin, which are central to Dante’s work, but also to give the events and images of his work a universal meaning. The novelty of the article lies in the fact that this is the first experience of identifying signs of Ligotti’s appeal to Dante.