ARTISTIC MEANS IN CREATING THE IMAGE OF AN ADDICT IN MODERN FOREIGN PROSE

Abstract

The article reveals the artistic means of creating an image of a drug addict in contemporary foreign prose. The activization of the attention of writers to such an interesting and untypical literary hero was first mentioned in the prose of foreign classics of the 20th century – in the works of M. Bulgakov «Morphine», novels by M. Ageev «Novel with Cocaine» and Ch. Aitmatov «The scaffold». The image of a drug addicts is multi-component in the current contemporary foreign prose; it combines the comprehensive representation of the hero: his psycho-behavioral and moral-ethical characteristics, social status, financial well-being and reflects the attitude of the author himself towards the problem of drug addiction. In the novels «Generation П» of V. Pelevin and «Plans» of S. Filipenko the authors focus on the background of the main characters, some events and information about their lives. In creating the image of a drug-addict, V. Pelevin notes the political and social changes, that took place during the post-Soviet times, which somehow affected the future of hero’s destiny. At this time Vavilen looking of his professional path. Other characters in the work – advertising, showmen’s and representatives of the criminal word, which are matched with the image of Vavilen and complement it of the image in the system of novel – play a common job and recreation, as well as aggregate bad habits such as drug use, plays an important role in revealing the image of a drug addict. The environs of the protagonist of the novel «Plans» – the scriptwriter Sasha Filipenko are similar to the social life of Vavilen. His colleagues are representatives of the show business, for whom drug abuse is not something vicious. Sasha Filipenko author, like Victor Pelevin focuses on the background of the protagonist, pushing the reader to believe that the environment of a person has a significant impact on the behavior, preferences or bad habits of the person himself. In the novel «Рlague» the image of the drug addict Yurka was created by Melikhov with the help of internal monologues and dialogues of the characters. In the center of attention is the family, which in society is considered socially safe, but despite the financial well-being, the intelligent parents has the son, which becomes an addicted person. Instead, a family of drug addicts is opposed to a socially prosperous family from the novel by I. Gerasimov, which belongs to another, a low stratum of society and has financial difficulties. The world of show business, which includes the characters of the novels of Ben Elton and Frederick Begbeder, we identified as a temptation, a negative factor affecting human behavior, due to the reluctance to give up drugs, because they are used all around. Heroes of novels an their social environment belong to the «world of chosen», narcotic drugs are not a ban for them, and even the attribute of «circular life», something everyday and even romantic. The prospect foresees a further multidisciplinary study of representations of the image of a drug addict in contemporary Ukrainian prose.