Abstract
This article examines the construction of the heroine Marta’s inner world in E. Klepikova’s short story cycle “Life in a Dream According to a Tear-off Calendar” through the prism of mythological and archetypal oppositions. Focusing on a contemporary Kazakhstani author whose prose remains largely unexplored in academic scholarship, the study applies psychoanalytic literary criticism in combination with mythopoetic, cultural-historical, and anthropological perspectives. Particular attention is given to binary contrasts-life and death, light and darkness, right and left, top and bottom-that frame Marta’s psychological experience and reveal her oscillation between conflicting principles. The analysis situates Marta’s image within the archetypes of Persephone and Psyche, emphasizing the heroine’s traits of transition and wandering between worlds. Dreams serve as a privileged medium to disclose unconscious layers of her personality: their symbols (such as butterfly, sun, and fish) are interpreted in the Jungian context of individuation. In addition, the spatial – temporal structure, symbolic details, chromatic codes, and nominative choices of the text are discussed as artistic devices shaping Marta’s portrait. Ultimately, the heroine emerges as a modern female figure whose archetypal features transform personal dilemmas into universal themes – the search for existential meaning and the aspiration toward inner balance.