GAME STRATEGY OF “THE SPY NOVEL” BY BORIS AKUNIN

This article analyzes the features of the game strategy of “The spy novel” by B. Akunin, which offers the an “alternative” story of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The text of the novel draws readers into the games between Soviet and German intelligences, and at the same time, acquaints readers with the Soviet reality of that time. Key historical figures, and human types in the pseudo-historical detective by Akunin are portrayed in a special artictic way. Such components of the game strategy as parody, theatricalization, verbal game of characters, stylization, variability of plot lines are analyzed. It is concluded that the game strategy in “The spy novel” is structure-forming as well as semantic factor in the poetics of the novel.