The image of alma mater in the memoir novel by E. Grishkovets “Theater of despair. Desperate theater”

The paper examines the image of Kemerovo State University in the novel by E. Grishkovets “Theater of despair. Desperate theater.” A comparative analysis reveals the specifics of KemSU relevant to the novel and its qualitative difference from other universities in Kemerovo. We can see how the student hero gets used to the University, becomes a part of it, and joins the University world. In the novel, this communion is shown as a capture, involvement, not always reflected by the hero. There are several semiotic places associated with the hero’s philological education and the creative life of students in the space of KemSU. Kemerovo State University embodies the most significant values of freedom, creativity, love, and enthusiasm in the artistic axiology of the novel. It is the place of special laws, emotional relationships, and connections, in a word, of the University spirit. The connection between the University and the theater in KemSU appears as natural and organic (“the University loved its theater”), in contrast to other universities, where the theater is an alien, fundamentally super-fluous element. In addition, the image of the theater in the novel opposes the space of an industrial city. The paper thus traces the exceptional role of the University in the emergence of love for the theater and the hero’s choice of the theater field. By its role in the novel, KemSU is literally realized as Alma mater, “nursing mother,” contributing to the creative development of the hero primarily related to the philological theme in the novel.