Intermedial character in short story “Sonata” by H. Hesse

The article is devoted to the analysis of Hermann Hesse’s story “Sonata” (1907) from the perspective of the actively evolving theory of intermediality in recent decades. Based on the typology of forms of intermediality proposed by the GermanAustrian theorist W. Wolf, the article introduces a refined definition of the concept of “intermedial character” and describes a consistent scheme of its identification in the artistic text. A detailed consideration of the inner world of the work, the plot, the system of characters, the system of points of view and compositional and speech forms allows us to discover intermedial components (the musical title, the characters’ perception and/or discussion of music, the figure of the musician) and talk about the mediabrid nature of the story. At the same time, the intermedial character occupies a special place in the structure of the work, because it is through him that another medium - music - penetrates into the mechanism of the narrative. His piano playing activates the inner world of the protagonist and becomes a catalyst of existential insight. Thus, the article substantiates the productivity of the experimental concept in the analysis of a literary work, where the artistic whole can be formed at the intersection of different media, and the identified binary oppositions (real / unreal, closed / open, material / spiritual, horizontal / vertical, linear / non linear time, etc.) allow us to talk about the formation of a neo romantic model of the world in a specific artistic text.