Abstract
This article is partially devoted to the theory of discourse as problems in linguistics and literary criticism. It identifies the most characteristic parameters of discourse as a paradigmatic utterance or system of utterances in the literature. Special attention is paid to the definition of the concept of environmental discourse, which has a basic meaning for this work. It is characteristic that ecological discourse found its artistic embodiment precisely in the structure of the philosophical novel in the modern literature of Kazakhstan. The novel by Rollan Seisenbayev «The Dead Roam in the Sands» is indicative of all features of a philosophical novel on an environmental theme. The main features of the ecological discourse in the novel «The Dead Roam in the Sands» are: a pronounced problematics of the novel, plot movement around the theme of the death of the Aral Sea, a typology of heroes revealed in the context of the dramatic events associated with the death of the Aral Sea, the poetics of symbols, concepts, marco and micro images of the work.