Artistic originality of reality in V.O. Pelevin's novel «Chapaev and Void»

the article examines the artistic distinctiveness of reality in Viktor Pelevin’s novel Chapaev and Void, which merges postmodernist strategies of “play” and deconstruction with a profound Buddhist concept of emptiness. The author highlights the motifs of dual worlds, parallel realities, and the illusory nature of all forms of being. The analysis focuses on characters caught in a “liminal” state between two eras (1919 and the 1990s) as well as the symbolic ending that points to absolute freedom (“Inner Mongolia”). It is concluded that the novel offers one of the most original portrayals of artistic reality in contemporary Russian prose, blending postmodern elements with a Zen-Buddhist perspective on existence.

Pelevin, Chapaev and Void, postmodernism, Zen Buddhism, emptiness, dual worlds, illusion, artistic reality