EVOLUTION OF THE IMAGES OF «REVOLUTIONARY» AND «TERRORIST» IN SPY PROSE: TOWARDS THE QUESTION OF A NEW GENRE HYBRIDIZATION

This article explores the transformation of key figures of political violence — the «revolutionary» and the «terrorist» – in popular literature. Contemporary popular fiction, particularly the spy novel, serves as a unique platform for examining complex social and political phenomena. In recent decades, there has been a noticeable surge of interest in themes of terrorism and revolution, necessitating a reevaluation of traditional spy genre narratives. The study traces the diachronic evolution of these archetypes: from the romanticized heroes of 19th-century adventure prose (e.g., «The Scarlet Pimpernel» by E. Orczy) to the complex antiheroes of modern spy novels with terrorist themes (e.g., «Terrorist» by J. Updike). The article examines whether adventure spy novels incorporating elements of terror could serve as the foundation for the emerging genre of the terrorist spy novel. The author argues that adventure novels featuring revolutionary figures (e. g., «The Gadfly» by E. Voynich, «Scaramouche» by R. Sabatini) acted as a bridge between traditional spy fiction and the new subgenre of terrorist spy fiction, where the terrorist occupies a central role in the plot. The study employs a comparative analysis of the sacrificial motives of revolutionaries and the fanaticism of terrorists, applying a historical-ideological approach to shifts in ideological paradigms. This allows the author to categorize established literary models of the «revolutionary» and the «terrorist» into two poles: the ethical (struggle for an ideal) and the pragmatic (violence as a tool). The core of the research lies in reinterpreting the genesis of the spy genre through the lens of political violence