The features of incantations in M. Elizarov’s prose

Mikhail Elizarov (b. 1973) is a modern Russian writer, in whose prose the elements of traditional realism are organically combined with mystical components. Incantations are one of the integral components of M. Elizarov’s artistic world, that plays an important role in the development of the plots of many of his works. This article examines the formal features of incantations appearing in Elizarov’s works. Elizarov’s incantations are defined by the author of the article as verbal formulas with a weakened or completely absent applied meaning, the use of which for communicative purposes is difficult or impossible. They are in one way or another desemanticized verbal formulas. It is the diminution of semantics in the traditional sense that allows some verbal formulas to contain, according to the plots of novels, novellas, short stories and artistic essays of the writer, new, mystical content that is inaccessible or not quite accessible to the understanding of ordinary characters, but intelligible to the characters of magicians. The author of the article identifies four types of word desemantization in Elizarov’s prose and considers specific examples: the first type is actually associated with the diminution of conceptual content in the verbal formula, in subordination of this content to harmony, that is a certain combination of sounds; the second is associated with the addition of the musical component to semantically complete verbal formulas, with the transformation of the word into a song; the third - with the subordination of the conceptual content of the word to expression, the emotional component; the fourth - with the distortion of verbal formulas already existing in the cultural field and occupying a certain place in it (Christian prayers, Soviet pop-songs), suggesting a deformation of the semantic series behind these formulas.