Antique Geopoetics of Petersburg in the Newest Russian Novels

The article examines examples of turning to the poetics of the “Petersburg text” in the Russian novel writing of 2022–2024. The selected texts are united not only by the formal setting – Leningrad of the late Soviet era and modern Petersburg, but also by the presence of persistent references to the ancient myth of Hades, the localization of which is Petersburg. In the works of Evgeny Vodolazkin (“Chagin”), Vera Soroka (“Petersburg Monsters”), Anton Sekisov (“Vaginov’s Room”), such recognizable toponyms of Petersburg as the Fountain House, the Neva and Fontanka rivers acquire the mythopoetic status of the vestibule of Hades with its Styx and Lethe, turn out to be associated with the themes of memory and oblivion, with the problem of preserving cultural heritage (Anna Basner’s novel “Theseus Paradox”), the solution to which in the literary Petersburg of the “Petersburg text” is ambivalent. In the novels under consideration, the real geography of the city is embodied in the geopoetic complex of the “kingdom of the dead”, symbolizing the mirage, mortal features of the city, striving to absorb and enslave the characters. The internal plots use details and reminiscences of ancient myths with images of immersion in Hades and return from it – the myths of Persephone and Orpheus, partly the myth of the return of Odysseus. These mythopoetic motifs bring to the understanding of the “Petersburg text” in the latest Russian novels the idea of overcoming the mortal attraction of the city through creativity, memory and love, revealed, among other things, by attracting and rethinking the ancient mythopoetic tradition.