“Otherworldlyness” in Collection of Stories by L. Ulitskaya “On Body of Soul”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the topic of the otherworldlyness in the collection of stories by Lyudmila Ulitskaya “About the body of the soul” (2019). Attention is paid to the diversity of the realization of the otherworldly category in the cycle of stories “Girlfriends” and “About the body of the soul.” The novelty of the research is seen in the fact that the collection “On the Body of the Soul” is the least researched collection of Ulitskaya’s stories. It is noted that the stories of the collection highlight one or another type of bodily perception — visual, tactile, auditory or olfactory. In the collection “On the Body of the Soul” L. Ulitskaya models the other world, playing out various options for the transition to an-other being. The author of the article concludes that the stories of the “Girlfriends” cycle are focused on the permeability of the boundaries of the otherworldlyness, the possibility of communication between the worlds, and the stories of the cycle “On the Body of the Soul” of the same name with the collection reconstruct various models of the otherworld itself. It is noted that the title of the collection “On the Body of the Soul” combines not only the material and spiritual, this worldly and otherworldly, but also the personal-human and divine. It is shown that both cycles create a single whole due to cross plots, themes, motives, the central of which is the transition to the otherworldlyness.