THE MYTH OF THE IMMORTALITY OF GOGOL’SLAUGHTER IN THE NOVEL BY A. KOROLYOV “GOGOL’S HEAD”

The article analyses the mythologizing receptive model concerning the nature of Gogol’s laughter in A. Korolev’s novel “Gogol’s Head”. The methods of re-actualization of two myths about Gogol in the novel are analyzed: the myth of the Gogol-sorcerer, proposed by Rozanov, and the urban legend of the head stolen during the reburial. It is determined that the mechanism of joint re-actualization of these myths determines the principles of constructing the plot of the novel and this leads to the creation of the myth of the immortality of Gogol’s laughter. In conclusion, it is indicated that the royal myth about Gogol is an ironic form of understanding the writer’s unfulfilled dream of the immortality of the soul in the Christian sense.