The article presents the second part of a study devoted to
Yuri P. Kazakov’s short story "The Abyss". The structural foundation of the story is the mythological motif of love and death, which is transformed on three levels: spatial, narrative, and ornamental. At the spatial level, two pairs of realms are formed: abstract (love – death) and geographical (rural Russia – Leningrad). The boundaries between these worlds are crossed by two characters, Ageev and Lenochka (with Leningrad itself additionally singled out as a third acting entity). Their storyline derives from the love–death motif, has a cyclical nature (the model "loss – search – attainment"), and is developed according to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The story activates a substantial layer of subtextual codes: fairy-tale and mythological, mystery-related, courtly-romantic, theatrical (tragic), and Petersburg-related. The greatest semiotic load falls on the hero’s departure, which leads to catastrophe. For this event, several complementary motivations can be reconstructed: mythological (the separation is dictated by fate), tragic, and ethical (Ageev is guilty of Lenochka’s death). The plot archetype of the story (the transformation of love into death through their fusion) is embodied at the level of figurative and verbal leitmotifs; the movement of leitmotif complexes is organized according to the sonata principle. In addition to myth, the story employs a linear-cumulative text-generating mechanism that fragments the narrative into a chain of anomalies and wonders. The exceptional structural integrity of the story makes it possible to incorporate the mechanical break in narration into its interpretation. In conclusion, the article briefly examines the position of "The Abyss" within the "uncollected cycle" of Kazakov’s other stories about love.
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