Archive of Scientific Articles

Abstract. The cave is an interesting and mysterious natural object attracting the attention of the researchers from different spheres of knowledge: from speleologists and geologists to art critics. In the literature the cave image is known from the ancient times. This frightening and captivating place can became both the habitation of a terrible monster and the dwelling-place of a god. The article examines the cave image represented in the novels by the British post-modernist Peter Ackroyd. The novels "The Fall of Troy" and "The Plato Papers" are closely associated with antiquity where the tradition to describe the cave as a sacred sanctuary (mythology) or as a limited "dark" space distorting the sounds, images and visions comes from. Peter Ackroyd re-considers these approaches to cave image representation proposing his own post-modernist interpretation.

Key words and phrases: античность, пещера, Платон, "Миф о Пещере", постмодернизм, необъективность мышления, способы познания мира, antiquity, cave, Plato, "The Myth of the Cave", post-modernism, unobjectivity of thinking, ways to cognize the world