The category of the unreal in Wardrobe by T. Mann's novel

The article deals with the features of the functioning of the unreal beginning in The Wardrobe by T. Mann’s novel. It manifests itself in the work in the following aspects: 1) the opposition ‘dream’ - ‘reality’; 2) the fuzziness of the spatio-temporal boundaries of the events taking place in the mind of the hero; 3) the presence in the system of characters of images of heroines-ghosts; 4) the narrator's emphasis on the fact of his uncertainty about the reliability of the events described. The ratio of the real and unreal worlds becomes fundamental for the development of the plot of the work. Through the use of the method of descriptive poetics, it has been established that the use of the unreal beginning in the short story is subordinated to the goal of subjecting to artistic research the consciousness of the hero removed from the world, doomed to death, his attempts to indulge in oblivion, overcome his own loneliness by leaving reality in the world of dreams.