The golden circumference: a thing as the world’s fate

The article explores the roots of symbolism of things in modern fantasy literature. It focuses on the image of the golden circumference, which appears in J.R.R. Tolkien’s, U. LeGuin’s and M. Ende’s main novels. The article lays bare the mythological roots of this image as well as showing that modern use of it confirms the meaning of the prototypical symbol. Golden circumference represents the world model in fantasy fiction as well as in ancient myths. Yet the three objects in the novels represent three different world models. On the basis of the analyzed novels the author states that contemporary fantasy literature aims to use an object symbolical code bearing on global allhuman archetypes. Therefore fantasy fiction creates a literature that can be called world, universal literature. The popularity of this functional style all over the world can be explained by the intuitive clarity and plainness of the object images resistant and traditional for most cultures for the reader. The boom of this kind of literature also points out the striving of contemporary reader for mythological, all-embarrassing way of thinking. Fantasy fiction is a retranslating of the myth’s memory in new conditions. Fantasy literature can serve as a workshop for creating new mythological symbols that would respond to the conceptions of the world of our contemporaries.Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова81-9