I. YAKOVLEV CHUVASH STATE PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY BULLETIN

Hubert Selby Jr., «The Demon», role of epigraph, existential crisis, American Dream, religious motifs

The article analyzes the intertextual role of the three-part epigraph in Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel “The Demon” and its function in shaping the semantic and axiological structure of the text. The study is relevant because epigraphs in Selby’s prose have received little scholarly attention, despite ongoing reader interest in his work and the growing critical focus on his novels over the past decade. The epigraph in “The Demon”, which combines Selby’s own aphorism with two biblical quotations from the Epistle of James and the Book of Psalms, introduces a religious and ethical perspective. It also reflects the novel’s theme of God’s absence. By using a systemic and integrative approach together with intertextual analysis, the study shows that the epigraph functions as the novel’s conceptual element and shapes how the text is supposed to be interpreted. When Selby’s ideas of “obsession” and “possession” are perceived alongside the biblical quotations, they form an ethical model in which evil arises from desire and personal responsibility, rather than from literal religious or mystical possession. The epigraph also gives the story a universal meaning by distancing it from specific social contexts. This allows the protagonist’s inner struggle to be interpreted in moral and ethical terms and prevents blame from being shifted onto society or external factors. Thus, the epigraph plays a crucial intertextual role: it defines the novel’s value system and helps maintain its conceptual unity within Selby’s writing method.

Vikhrova, Ksenia Aleksandrovna – Senior Lecturer at the Department of Humanities and Engineering, Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design, Saint Petersburg, Russia, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4175-8005, r2654256@gmail.com