In Search of Symmetry. Andrei Bitov and his last novel

This paper aims to analyze the metanovel narrative strategies in the postmodern literary context, defined by the scientific outcomes of quantum physics. According to them the world is a system of integrated space and time which are mutually complementary. The symmetry of time and space in this sense becomes the groundplan for the structural components of Andrei Bitov’s last novel. Through these components: for instance echo, mirror, duality, the written and the unwritten, real life in the text and life out of context, physical time and grammatical time etc., we can find out the main course of the narrative and to point out its consistency. The apparent scrappiness performs the purpose to prove the capital importance of the route, of the journey, and not its end, probably non- existent. Following this point of view, hints at other works and authors (from ancient Greek myths to Nabokov) are also meant to share the invisible web of coexistence and persistency of the literary process.