The effect of historical present as a technique for organizing time in Hilary Mantel's novel "The Mirror and the Light"

The aim of this article is to examine the peculiarities of the functioning of such a widespread narrative technique in the 20th and 21st centuries as the present historical tense. Based on the material of H. Mantel's novel "The Mirror and the Light," which is the final part of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, it analyzes the grammatical, psychological, and fictional aspects of using praesens historicum in free indirect speech, allowing the author to combine the subjective perception of time by the character with the dramatization of historical narrative, as well as to compare the events with paintings created by an artist. Special attention is paid to the role of the present tense in creating a fictional space oriented towards theatricality, eternal return, and reversibility of time, as well as in linking the individual memory of the hero with the philosophical reflection on history. The methodology of analysis is based on the combination of linguistic stylistic and narrative analyses, which allows us to consider how the grammatical technique transforms into an element of artistic poetics and influences the perception of historical time in the text. It is shown that the choice of this tense form becomes an important artistic and linguistic stylistic device that ensures the cohesion of the text and forms a particular concept of time in the trilogy. Possible areas of application for the results include commentary on Russian-language editions, revision of translation, and teaching linguistic stylistic analysis. The novelty of the work lies in demonstrating how, at the level of narration, praesens historicum forms the integrity of the text, ensuring the cohesion of disparate episodes and engaging the reader in the subjective perception of events. By combining the present tense with verbs of perception and cognitive activity, an effect of psychological presence is created, and the fate of Thomas Cromwell unfolds as a dramatic action rather than as something completed, described in the form of a chronicle. The introduction of a theatrical dimension and reference to the legacy of W. Shakespeare allows the narrative to be perceived as a stage where historical events are played out again and again.