Article

Name: Mystery and enigma: on the fusion of detective and fantasy genres in modern literature (a case study of the novel series “Urban Legends” by Lena Obukhova)

Authors: Elena Yu. Kulikova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract:

This study focuses on the series of novels “Urban Legends” by the contemporary writer Lena Obukhova. The dual nature of the narrative is apparent in the combination of detective and fantasy genres in these novels. The elements of mystery and enigma, typical of a detective as described by Daniel Kluger, are woven into the fantasy narrative. Each legend, as presented within the text, embodies a type of verbal ekphrasis materializing. The story transitions into the central theme of the narrative and is augmented by additional details, establishing the schematic structure of the creation. Urban legends linked to peculiar homicides necessitate inquiry, a key aspect of detective narratives. The detective, originating from magical folklore and mythology, synthesizes a variety of genres, styles, and trends. Not accidental but inevitable symbiosis happens in the late twentieth and the early part of the twenty-first century with the modern fantasy novel, a genre even more recent than the detective genre itself. The combination of genres within a single work is referred to as a “supertext” in current literary scholarship. This study underscores the predominant motifs and narratives of traditional horror. Included are animated images and objects, doors and windows as gateways to the Other World, wells and elevators symbolizing the descent into the infernal abyss, old manor houses and wandering ghosts constituting mystical spaces derived from Gothic novels, and cemeteries featuring Night Watchmen embodying prototypes of the Other World.

Keywords: Urban legends, detective genre, fantasy, modern prose, ekphrasis

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