Dzīvnieks un cilvēks Regīnas Ezeras īsprozas krājumā „Pūķa ola”

This article mainly covers the last of Regīna Ezera’s short fiction collection “Dragon’s Egg” (Pūķa ola). From it, four stories have been selected for analysis – “Journeying of Souls” (Dvēseļu ceļošana), “Satanic Story” (Sātanisks stāsts), “Ode for the Moon and Falling Leaves” (Oda mēnesim un krītošām lapām) un “Dragon’s Egg” (Pūķa ola) – which show bright images of animal characters. As it is known, animals have played an important role in both the life and work of the writer. The aim of the article is to study the short stories of Regīna Ezera in the context of postcolonialism, narratology, and animal studies, actualising and conceptualising the zoological images and their mutual relations in the formation of the image system of the literary works. The result provides insight into the formation of the system of zoological characters and their interaction with people and different principles of animal characters’ use. The article highlights the two most important principles. The first principle – a human and his companion animal are both a symbol and a sign for the future (for example, upcoming tragic events, such as death, or the process of life continuity). The second principle is the image of the animal as a means of literary technique (most often a metaphor for comparison) that participates in the creation of human characters.