Mythologem of water in the contemporary Russian “coming of age novel” (A. G. Arkhangelsky “Check office”, A. N. Varlamov “My soul Paul”, E. G. Vodolazkin “Brisben”)

The article deals with three modern Russian novels about coming of age, which are united by a common year of publication (2018), the described late Soviet era and an appeal to the plot of initiation. The interest in historical narrative and the demand for moral-philosophical problems explain such a non-random attention of modern prose writers to the juvenile hero. At the center of the mythological and poetic system of the novels under consideration is the mythology of water. Its diverse symbolism is connected with the motifs of temptation, trial, baptism, rebirth, with the antithesis of life and death, carnal and spiritual. Water images are used to characterize the heroines of novels that resemble mythological „mermaids”. Water, which traditionally means the border between the worlds, in the above texts not only marks the age limit, but also forms a situation of moral choice, which indicates the current maturity of the heroes.