Metaphorical understanding of the life path and the search for the meaning of life in V. Pelevin’s novel "The Invincible Sun"

Abstract

The paper explores the metaphors and similes in modern literary text. The material for the study was V. O. Pelevin’s novel "The Invincible Sun" (2020). The paper aims to analyse the comparison tropes of the novel (mostly extended metaphors) with the semantics of the search for the meaning of life. Another goal is to identify the source domain of the metaphors which are often determined by experience and a person’s socio-cultural environment. As comparison tropes in V. O. Pelevin’s works are under-investigated, the study appears novel. The main method is linguo-stylistic, lexico-semantic, and contextual analysis. The research has revealed that the idea of the world as a simulation is interpreted through gadgets and devices creating virtual reality. It has been shown that the person himself, his inner and outer microcosms seem unreal and are represented by virtual gadgets and their components as well as computer-like processes (transfer and erasure of information, reformatting, and so on). The spiritual world of a person is interpreted through associations and comparisons with Internet channels. The Otherworld, its creator and gods are embodied with the help of the "Invincible Sun" projector. Everything material, or "earthly", is an illusion and a simulation. The paper states that a person’s search for their path, their role and actions are materialised by artefactual metaphors, and a person’s place is defined as a thread in a pattern on the fabric of the world. The study concludes that such a twofold world view and such a location of a person in the world are typical of V. O. Pelevin and his idiostyle, i. e. they convey the dominant idea of his works.