The image of a mother in L. S. Petrushevskaya’s horror stories

The aim of this research is to identify the specific characteristics of the realization of archetypal traits in the image of the mother in L. S. Petrushevskaya’s horror stories. It is important to demonstrate that, in creating female characters, the author relies not so much on the research tradition of Sigmund Freud, but rather on the ideas of his opponents (Carl Jung, Rudolf Steiner), who insist that the foundation of primordial spiritual reality is Christian. The article examines key trends in the development of the latest literature as a whole, and the specific features of the embodiment of the archetypal image of the mother in the works of L. S. Petrushevskaya as crucial to the writer’s worldview. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that, for the first time, a comprehensive study of the image of the mother in the author’s artistic world is conducted, taking into account the genre features of horror stories and the specifics of the writer’s worldview. The image of the mother is understood as a symbol of mercy, preserving not only the family, but also the integrity of the universe at its ultimate limit. The results of the study show that the figure of the mother in Petrushevskaya’s horror stories – significant from the point of view of the development of this theme – is one of the structure-forming elements, embodying the main idea of the author’s philosophy: the idea of compassion, mercy, and responsiveness to the pain of others, upon which the world stands.