THE LEITMOTIF OF ILLNESS IN THE NOVEL “DOCTOR ZHIVAGO” BY B. PASTERNAK

The article considers the meaning-forming function of the leitmotif of illness in B. Pasternak’s novel “Doctor Zhivago”. By leitmotif we mean the central motif of a fiction work. Illness is seen as an anomaly of life, which in its invariant represents a borderline, liminal situation, something non-normative. The novel presents revolution and civil war as social processes that are morbid in themselves and spread the disease, “infecting” people and the surrounding space. Illness in its various manifestations (both mental and bodily) permeates the entire fabric of the novel. The article, with the help of I.V. Silantiev’s method of the motif analysis, studies several events realizing the motif of interest to us. The leitmotif of illness turns out to be the central, plot-forming motif in the novel.