Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s “Reading” of the World and Herself

Abstract This article examines Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s Discarded Relics ( Svyashchennyy musor , 2012), a hybrid work combining essayistic and autobiographical elements with postmodern assemblage. The analysis focuses on how Ulitskaya constructs her world perception, engages in self-analysis, and builds her identity within this unique literary form. Utilizing textual analysis informed by postmodernist, new realist, and modernist literary discourse, the study highlights Ulitskaya’s pantextual worldview, where “everything is text,” and “reading” becomes a comprehensive intellectual and emotional mode of conscious existence. Key findings include the multifaceted significance of the “sacred garbage” motif as a metaphor for human experience and the world-text, and Ulitskaya’s distinctive multi-perspectival narration, which integrates a “writer’s gaze” (metaphorical, subjective) with a “geneticist-scholar’s gaze” (scientific, analytical). The article argues that Discarded Relics presents a holistic yet complex vision of existence, transcending binary oppositions through its collage-like structure and essayistic digressiveness. Ultimately, the work functions as a wisdom narrative, reflecting Ulitskaya’s honest, self-critical, and dialogue-oriented spiritual journey from personal experience towards a universal affirmation of life and a vertical quest for higher meaning.