The motif of the path and its meaning in E. Vodolazkin’s novel Lavr

Statement of the problem. The article is devoted to the study of the category of motive in contemporary literary criticism. Based on the material of the novel Lavr, one of the leading works of mature prose by E. Vodolazkin, the motif of the path as a cross-cutting motif in Russian literature is explored. Its artistic, aesthetic and lexical-semantic meaning is determined within the boundaries of the author’s narrative. The purpose of the study is to determine the functional significance of the path motif in the space of E. Vodolazkin’s hagiography novel Lavr, which inherits the genre traditions of Old Russian literature. Research methods: cultural-historical, structural-semiotic. Research results. The motif of the path seems to form the structure in E. Vodolazkin’s work Lavr. The “travel” theme, marked in the author’s definition of the genre of the work, hagiographic novel, refers to the Russian medieval tradition; p articular attention is paid to the features of the hagiographic style of narration. The passage of the path by the main character in a vertical (rather than horizontal) projection is confirmed by the study of the lexical and semantic features of several of his names. These names successively replace each other, and in the presented sequence a pattern is revealed: each subsequent name “elevates” the main character, bringing him closer to the sacred status - saint - and marks his special - God-chosen - path.