Principles of mythologizing in Neil Gaiman's novel “American gods”

The article discusses a novel by Neil Gaiman “American Gods” from the stand point of rethinking traditional mythological images. The aim of the work is to reveal the writer's interpretation of the essence of Norse, Egyptian, African, and Celtic gods and deities of other cultural traditions. To identify existing parallels between the novel and traditional mythological personalities the method of comparative-historical analysis was used. The article emphasizes that Neil Gaiman in his works followed an established mythological tradition in creating images of American gods. This practice is especially evident when we turn to the image of Wednesday that corresponds with the image of Scandinavian Odin. The article examines the theme of the struggle between the old and the new gods - gods born by modern civilization. The concept of birth and existence of mythological ideas about gods is also considered. It is concluded that, firstly, Neil Gaiman used a postmodern principle of quoting to complicate the structure of the artwork, and secondly, addressing the problem of gods' existence in the modern world, the writer poses a question on peculiarities of American worldview.