Metaforyzacja przestrzeni moskiewskiego metra w eseju Wiktora Pielewina Podziemne niebo .......... 345

Authors

Magdalena Ochniak
Jagiellonian University image/svg+xml

Synopsis

THE METAPHORIZATION OF THE SPACE OF THE MOSCOW METRO IN VIKTOR PELEVIN’S ESSAY THE UNDERGROUND SKY

The article analyzes Viktor Pelevin’s essay The Underground Sky as a philosophical and cultural reflection on the symbolic meaning of the Moscow Metro. The metro is examined as an integral ideological project in which architecture and monumental art construct the symbolic space of Soviet utopia. Particular attention is given to three key metaphors: the metro as a “virtual mausoleum”, the “Soviet Hades”, and the “underground sky”. These images make it possible to interpret the metro as a space of petrified ideas, posthumous existence, and illusory hope. The final image of the “eternal sunset”, observed in one of the ceiling mosaics at the Mayakovskaya station, is interpreted not as a promise of salvation but as a symbol of arrested time and an unfulfilled future. Thus, in Pelevin’s essay, the Moscow Metro appears as an underground monument to an unrealized Soviet dream.

Published

27 October 2026

How to Cite

Pisarska, Justyna, Janusz Świeży, and Magdalena Ochniak, eds. 2026. “Metaforyzacja Przestrzeni Moskiewskiego Metra W Eseju Wiktora Pielewina Podziemne Niebo . 345”. In Świat przeżywany, świat Opowiadany: Szkice O literaturze Rosyjskiej (i Nie Tylko) Dedykowane Profesor Annie Skotnickiej, Scripta Łużniana, Vol. 4:345-65. Scripta Łużniana. Poland: Księgarnia Akademicka Publishing. https://doi.org/10.12797/9788383685540.16.