Mythopoetics of the cemetery space in horror fiction (based on the material of modern Russian literature)

This article deals with the locus of the cemetery in modern Russian horror. We examine approaches to the depiction of scary spaces in literature, describe the cemetery as a locus of horror, study the motives associated with the cemetery in horror, detect intermedial connections, provide interpretation of folklore and literary references. The cemetery is one of the key loci of folk culture, presented in folklore as a space of contact with the otherworldly (with the world of the dead), which explains the interest of horror authors in these ‘scary’ places. The modern literature of horror offers modifications of the image of the cemetery, their main characteristics, intertextual interaction with Russian and foreign traditions, which allow us to speak of this image as a unit of the genre canon of horror. The paper examines how exactly the image of the cemetery is presented by modern Russian authors: A. Ivanov, A. Ateev, M. Romanova, K. Alekseev, I. Lesev. We have established that various clichés of folklore and horror literature are used in connection with the locus of the cemetery. These include the motive of a ‘bad place’, the motive of reviving the dead, the motive of crossing the borders, violation of a ban/taboo. The cemetery can be viewed in a literary work as a source of supernatural horror (and even, as in Alekseev’s work, may turn into a thinking creature) or, as in Ivanov’s novels, represent a false source of danger. We conclude that the cemetery in horror becomes a place where not only worlds but also eras are connected, which reveals the important function of horror - the comprehension of the past of an individual and society. The portrayal of the cemetery in horror draws on a rich literary and folkloric tradition.