Representation of the Mystical (N. Petrovskaya) and the Magical (J. Cortazar) in Fiction

Modern Chuvash literature is distinguished by its ideological, thematic and genre-stylistic richness. Many of the artistic trends of Chuvash prose most clearly manifested themselves in the late 20th - early 21st centuries. The relevance of this study is associated with the need to study the poetics of mysticism as one of the modern trends of Chuvash prose in the context of world artistic trends - magical realism, taking into account their aesthetic connections and differences. Artistic and mystical works in Russian (including Chuvash) literature very often represent a synthesis of Orthodox-religious and national-folklore motifs, images, and themes. Meanwhile, such mysticism in its poetics is very close to magical realism, which originated in Latin American literature. Taking these features into account, the aim of this study was to identify aesthetic parallels between the works of Chuvash mystical prose and magical realism. In accordance with the purpose, the main tasks of the work are formulated: to study the theoretical issues of the poetics of the mystical and magical; to determine the genre and stylistic features of the work of the writers under study; to identify the main elements of the commonality of Chuvash artistic mysticism and magical realism. The works of the Chuvash author Nelli Petrovskaya and the Argentine author Julio Cortazar were selected as research material. The main research methods are comparative-historical and contrastive analysis of works of art. As a result of the study, they came to the conclusion that the mystical and magical in fiction manifest themselves as something inexplicable, miraculous, otherworldly, while the plot of the story is based on real life. Their distinctive feature is that in mystical works religious ideas and symbols are expressed more vividly, while in magical realism the mythological worldview of the people is expressed more vividly. However, it also contains religious symbols.