Concept of the multiverse in fantasy literature: from Moorcock to Sapkowski

This article analyzes the principles of creating a multiverse in the works of various authors of the second half of the XX century in the context of cultural and scientific prerequisites. It uses comparative historical and descriptive methods. These methods allow us to generalize scientific theories from antiquity to the XX century and to determine how ideas about the existence of many worlds influenced the fantasy literature in the XX century. It is concluded that the concept of the multiverse was highly demanded by the genre of fantasy, as it allowed to expand the boundaries of the world and complicate the structure of the narrative. It is important to emphasize that these ideas developed in parallel with the emergence of the esthetics of postmodernism, which denies the only truth and, therefore, the existence of one single world. The authors whose works were analyzed represent the multiworld differently. In the works of Clive Staples Lewis, Michael Moorcock and Roger Zelazny, we see a tendency toward a cosmological center, but it is presented in different ways. In the works of Martin D. W. Jones, the system of parallel worlds is structured and their appearance is explained most logically; at the same time, Jones and Zelazny establish and conceptualize the system of twins living in different worlds. Philip Pullman does not seek to create a thoughtful structure of the multiverse, since he emphasizes ethical and humanistic problems. But in his books, the image of an object that allows creating portals between dimensions is important. In the works of Andrzej Sapkowski, the structure of the multiverse is also not fully revealed, but this concept performs a world-forming function.