Bob Dylan's “Tarantula” in the structure of Mariam Petrosyan's novel “The gray house” (“The house, in which...”)

M. Petrosyan’s novel “The Gray House”, whose title is already a quote from the famous children’s poem (Russian: “Dom, v kotorom…”, literally: “The House, In Which...”), abounds with the quotes and reminiscences. The constantly arising quotes in the fiction world of the novel create a peculiar cultural code which is common for all main characters. Being socially isolated, the teenage characters create their special world filling it with the cultural senses. The understanding of the implication created by the references to other texts (it is generally rock music and fantasy or science fiction literature) allows the reader to join the fiction world of the novel too. The mention of rare, little-known texts becomes the sign of the author’s orientation to underground literature. A specific place among such texts is taken by Bob Dylan’s novel “Tarantula” published in Russian in 1991 The references to Bob Dylan’s “Tarantula” in M. Petrosyan’s novel “The Gray House” are present in the epigraphs to four chapters and the names of characters as well. In each case the separate words of their epigraph coincide with some element of the fiction world embodied in the chapter. The close link arises between the epigraph and the character who is a subject of consciousness and speech in the chapter. Nevertheless, the unambiguous semantic link of the epigraph with the text of the novel does not arise. It is explained by the specifics of the novel “Tarantula” where the author constantly appeals to the nonsense and absurdity. On the one hand, the senseless phrase taken as an epigraph hints at the existence of hardly perceptible and ambiguous sense. On the other hand, it calls into question reliability and unambiguity of the information received by our minds. Besides, the quotes from the same book create additional links between characters who are poorly connected at the plot level.