The article examines the role of sound as a key instrument of artistic expression in Sasha Sokolovs novel A School for Fools in the context of its continuity with the aesthetic principles of Symbolism. Sokolovs oeuvre is traditionally regarded as the pinnacle of postmodernism in Russian literature of the last quarter of the twentieth century. However, the poetics of the novel is built on a complex semantic system and abounds in multilayered symbolic images of the sonic spectrum, revealing continuity with the traditions of Symbolism. The aim of the article is to assess the degree to which the artistic codes of Symbolism have influenced Sokolovs work through analysis of the sound organization of the text. The methods employed include semiotic and contextual analysis. The results reveal that sound images in the novel — musicality, work with the syllable, metric continuum, cry — form an independent semantic system rooted in the poetics of Andrei Bely and Konstantin Balmont. The term post-symbolism is introduced to refine the genre classification of the novel. It is concluded that the sound organization of A School for Fools is not merely a stylistic device but a fundamental constructive principle rooted in the Symbolist tradition.The article examines the role of sound as a key instrument of artistic expression in Sasha Sokolovs novel A School for Fools in the context of its continuity with the aesthetic principles of Symbolism. Sokolovs oeuvre is traditionally regarded as the pinnacle of postmodernism in Russian literature of the last quarter of the twentieth century. However, the poetics of the novel is built on a complex semantic system and abounds in multilayered symbolic images of the sonic spectrum, revealing continuity with the traditions of Symbolism. The aim of the article is to assess the degree to which the artistic codes of Symbolism have influenced Sokolovs work through analysis of the sound organization of the text. The methods employed include semiotic and contextual analysis. The results reveal that sound images in the novel — musicality, work with the syllable, metric continuum, cry — form an independent semantic system rooted in the poetics of Andrei Bely and Konstantin Balmont. The term post-symbolism is introduced to refine the genre classification of the novel. It is concluded that the sound organization of A School for Fools is not merely a stylistic device but a fundamental constructive principle rooted in the Symbolist tradition.

KeywordsSasha Sokolov novel A School for Fools symbolism post-symbolism musicality sound image metric continuum Andrei Bely