This article analyzes some specific features of the madness motif in Belyaev's prose. The authors of the article used the comparative-historical and holistic method of analysis of a literary work. It has been established that the motif of madness plays an essential role in the works of A.R. Belyaev by performing the plot-generating function both in his novels and in his short stories. The motif of madness is a key motif in the novels «The Last Man from Atlantis», «Amphibian Man», «Lord of the World», «Professor Dowell's Head», as well as in the cycle of stories «Inventions of Professor Wagner», in the stories «Fear» and «Is It Easy to Be a Crawfish?». Madness in its «romantic» variant defines the types of mad characters in Belyaev's prose: first, the «mad geniuses», and, second, the scientists who become the cause of other characters’ madness.
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