Charles Dickens's novel «Great expectations» as a novel-initiation

In literature the notion of initiation has frequently been the interest for the interpretation of novels and fairy-tales. This article is aimed to investigate the narrative models of initiation rite regarding the novel “Great Expectations” written by Ch. Dickens and to review it as a product, which is embodied in the narrative model of initiation rite. This article is an attempt to analyze the narrative as a rite of initiation with revealing special features characteristic of novel-initiation: the kind of Hero, the events of the narrative, as well as time-space are considered through a prism of novel-initiation. The purpose of the article identified the following objectives: to reveal the stages of the rite in the literary discourse; to determine the structural elements of the narrative, as well as marking the transition criteria. Being the oldest form of education, initiation, in which the child is included in adult society when he becomes adolescent, it is the basis of mythological work. In the novel "Great Expectations" the archetype of initiation rite is revealed. Noting the main stages of the initiation which is realized through such necessary steps as “separation –agregation - liminality” we can conclude that the novel written by Ch. Dickens might be considered as a novel-initiation. Overcoming obstacles on the way to adulthood, the hero faces a rite of initiation and through it becomes an adult person. Passing "forbidden threshold" to the adult state, the point of “no return” becomes the main indicator of the successful initiation of the subject.