ИСТИНА

Triptych (2011) by Sasha Sokolov was qualified in Russian critical discussions as essays or philosophical poetry. In fact, this work was organized as transgressive prosopopeia: rhetorical figures as independent characters and rhetorical topoi as main plot motifs. We analyse the topos of “pleasant place” (locus amoenus) and its evolution in the work of Sasha Sokolov: from parody of epideictic eloquence to poetic metaphors and moral parables as grounds of paradoxal narrative constructions.