O.I.Senkovsky's novel ”Brownie's notes”: in search of the urban fantasy roots

In search of the origin of urban fantasy the author refers to the Russian literature of the XIX century. The object of our analysis is the novel “Brownie’s Notes” (1835) written by О. I. Senkovsky. The following features of the genre were highlighted: concentration of actions in the context of urban space, reflection on the theme of death and underworld characters, centralization on the inner world of the protagonist and his spiritual experience, employment of oneiric motives. Different folklore characters appear in the text - devils, brownies, the dead. Poetics of the novel, by virtue of its genre rules, shows that representatives of the supernatural world are immeasurably stronger than human beings. Even when human beings defeat them in a particular situation, this victory is temporary. Satirical orientation of the novel and its adherence to the culturally traditional folk humor show that by genre the story can be also characterized as humorous fantasy.