AN INTERPRETATION OF M.A. BULGAKOV’S NOVEL “THE MASTER AND MARGARITA”: THE PROBLEM OF INTERTEXTUAL CONNECTIONS WITH THE NOVELS BY G.K. CHESTERTON (“THE BALL AND THE CROSS”, “THE MAN WHO WAS THURSDAY”)

Abstract

In the article, in the context of typological similarities and general religious discourse, a comparative examination of the artistic elements of M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” and G.K. Chesterton’s novels “The Ball and the Cross” and “The Man Who Was Thursday” is carried out in order to clarify the presence of the phenomenon of intertextuality between them. As a result of the work carried out, it was determined that the works of G.K. Chesterton “The Man Who Was Thursday”, “The Ball and the Cross” and the novel by M.A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita” have an internal dialogical connection at the level of themes, problematics, images, motives, plot episodes of works and character systems. The author suggests that such a dialogical connection is not just a typological proximity of the components of these novels, but can be considered as a phenomenon of intertextuality. At the level of ideological and philosophical content, both the novel “The Master and Margarita” and Chesterton’s novel “The Ball and the Cross” are united by both rejection of the ideas of atheism and the affirmation of the principle of the primacy of Christian values at the level of eschatology.