Artistic space functions in the Russian fantasy prose of the 19th century (on the example of Cosmorama novel by V. F. Odoevsky)

This article examines artistic space functions in Cosmorama novella by V. F. Odoevsky, which belongs to the initial stage of the formation and development of Russian fantasy prose. Based on the classifications of artistic space functions developed by Russian literary criticism, we described genre-forming, psychological, characterological, and plot-forming functions. Following E. M. Bukaty, we divided the characterological function highlighted by M. M. Bakhtin into char-acterological and psychological, which allowed considering in detail the ways the space influ-ences the inner state of the characters in the literary work. The study showed that the specifics of spatial organization in Cosmorama fantastic story by V. F. Odoevsky is defined not only by the recognized functions of artistic space (psychological, which is determined by the images of home and pseudo-home; characterological, which creates spatial oppositions “one’s own, safe – someone else’s, dangerous”; plot-forming, which depends on the movement of characters), but also by the fantastic element that performs a genre-forming function and is responsible for the development of the plot, the formation of the type of hero, and the very formation of space. Be-sides, when considering artistic space functions in this story, we discovered the characteristic fea-tures of horror literature, which allows classifying this story as a fantasy novel with horror genre elements.