Apophatics of artistic culture: raising the issue. Disease, death and sleep ethoses in Alexander Grin's story "Struggle with Death"

Object of the article: apophatics as a cultural phenomenon. Subject of the article: a method of creating an apophatic reality in a literary work, the apophatic side of the phenomenon of sleep is studied. Material of the article: an early little-known story by Alexander Grin "Struggle with Death" (1918). Research methodology: a holistic analysis of a literary text, which is achieved through the ontohermeneutic method using the semantic research method. Research results: analysis of Grin's early story, identification of its ontological meaning, ethos of illness, death, sleep allows raising an issue of apophatics of a literary work. The appeal to anthroposophical reflections on the axiological status of sleep by the German philosopher Rudolf Steiner, whose ideas were shared by the representatives of the Silver Age, especially Maximilian Voloshin, Grin's closest friend, is also productive, since the anthroposophist highlights the apophatic side of sleep associated with day and night human consciousness. The ethos in the article is understood within the framework of Heidegger's research, which makes it possible to deepen the cultural-philosophical ideas about the phenomenon of death, disease and sleep in the global art culture.