Anastasia de La Fortelle’s scientific contributions

The article explores the semantic and poetic functions performed by elements of Buddhist philosophy in the work of the contemporary Russian writer Victor Pelevin, particularly in his novel Chapayev and Void. According to its author, the text was found in an “ Inner Mongolia ” by the “ President of the Buddhist Front of the total and definitive Liberation ” and represents a kaleidoscope of virtual, hypothetical and hallucinatory realities that seem to gravitate around the dominant concept in Pelevin’s world : emptiness. The origins and challenges of this concept lead to the question of the Buddhist quest’s meaning - pure aesthetic experience or new ideological refuge - in Russian postmodernism.