Narrative strategies in L. Ulitskaya's novel The Kukotsky enigma

Problem statement and goal. Lyudmila Ulitskaya is one of the most widely read contemporary Russian authors. L. Ulitskaya's works are popular not only in Russia, but also in other countries. They arouse genuine research interest both among literary critics and linguists. Currently, there are more than two dozen dissertations, many review chapters in monographs, as well as scientific articles devoted to the analysis of such works of the author as novellas Sonechka, The Funeral Party, Women's Lies; collections of short stories Poor Relatives, Girls, Gift not made with hands; novels Sincerely your Shurik, Medea and Her Children, Daniel Stein, Interpreter, The Big Green Tent. L. Ulitskaya's novel The Kukotsky Enigma remains the least studied text of the author. In this article, the content of this novel is analyzed for narratology. The researcher reflects on one of the topical literary problems: the influence of narrative strategies on the reception of the author's text. The research was based on the works by V. Tyupa, Yu. Lotman, N. Leiderman, and M. Lipovetsky. The research methodology is based on historical-cultural and structural-typological approaches. The subject of the research is the specifics of the implementation of narrative strategies in L. Ulitskaya's novel The Kukotsky Enigma. Research result. Based on the analysis of L. Ulitskaya's novel The Kukotsky Enigma, it is shown how the narrative strategy of the work affects its potential reception. Based on the concept by V. Tyupa, who defined the narrative strategy as a set of three equivalent bases (the narrative picture of the world, the narrative modality, and the narrative intrigue), the researcher identifies the changes that the narrative strategy undergoes in the course of the plot development, notes how these changes affect the poetics of the novel and its axiological content. Conclusion. The narrative strategy by which the narrative of the novel in question is organized can be defined as “the strategy of breaking the horizon of readers' expectations”. Multiple changes in the narrative instance fill the work with a variety of points of view, creates a sense of ghostly, ephemeral events, and encourages the reader to independently search for the truth. The content of the novel is not directly dependent on the chronology of events. Fragments of the story are arranged inversely, segmentally, so that their juxtaposition contributes to the fullest understanding of the content. The narratives presented in the novel actualize the “ontological intrigue”, based on the representation of individual mythopoetic models and revealing the plot of comprehension of truth and purpose.