Grotesque ambiguity of conflict in the drama of L. N. Lunts

The article is devoted to studying the complication of conflict in the drama of L. N. Lunts. The aim of the research is to determine the methods and forms of transformation of the traditional tragic conflict as a means of embodying the playwright’s grotesque artistic thinking. The article analyzes the plays of L. N. Lunts, as a result of which it was established that the grotesque ambiguity of the conflict is achieved in different ways. First, there is the constant change of opposing sides, characteristic of all the plays, with a change of views and opinions occurring almost instantly and sometimes completely unexpectedly for the participants themselves. Second, the main character of two tragedies (Outlaw and Bertrand de Born) represents a special modification of the tragic hero – a grotesque-tragic one – embodying the instability of his positions, although outwardly belonging to one of the parties to the conflict. Third, in the dramas “The Apes are Coming!” and “The City of Truth”, the active side of the confrontation becomes the crowd, the mass, openly declaring its position, also sharply changing its views. The main driving force in the conflict becomes fear, a premonition of catastrophe. The scientific novelty of the research lies in correlating the specifics of the conflict of Lunts’s dramas with the grotesque form of artistic thinking, and in characterizing the reflection of contradictions of non-aesthetic reality in the poetics of the plays.