On the edges of sleep: falling asleepand awakening in modern Russian prose
The present article portrays how the problem of crossing the boundary between sleep and wakefulness is dealt with in works of modern-day writers. The choice of the topics — falling asleep and awakening — stresses the borderline nature of sleep, and is motivated by the ways these notions reflect upon the conviction in the antonymous nature of the world. Transition from reality to unreality and all the way back, turns out to represent two aspects of the same process — movement. Distinctions between the boundaries are lifted, and in the place of antagonistic notions, there are contrasting poles, which represent phenomena completing each other.