Aim. To study the assessment of prose and drama, as well as the significance of the personality of D. I. Fonvizin by writers and poets – his contemporaries – and literary scholars of the 20th–21st centuries in the aspect of the writer’s artistic ontology. This approach makes it possible to update ideas about the significance of statements by creative individuals about their fellow writer both for characterizing the characters in the work of the playwright and educator Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin, and for assessing his artistic principles in general. The article evaluates the variety of perspectives of memories of Fonvizin’s activities, examines the uniqueness and cultural and historical value of his legacy.

Methodology. The author offers an analysis of the works of Prince Pyotr Andreevich Vyazemsky (1792– 1878), dedicated to the work of D. I. Fonvizin. The approach to the disclosure of the problem is based on the testimony of authors from different eras and times, which allows us to judge the obvious similarity of the authors’ views on the literary and artistic process in general and on the legacy of D. I. Fonvizin in particular.

Results.  In the course of the work, the features of the critical approach of the writer Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky to the legacy of Fonvizin were identified. A conclusion is made about the need to master the basics of the skill of a critic on the material used.

Research implications. The author managed to offer a new approach to assessing Fonvizin’s work in the critical potential of writers-critics.

Aim. To identify in the text of the comedy the units of the lexical-semantic level used by D. I. Fonvizin to create female images and to determine their functional and semantic significance.

Methodology. The work uses a comprehensive methodology, including a descriptive-analytical method and a contextual analysis method.

Results. The article presents the results of the study of the features of lexical and semantic means representing the female image in D. I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Brigadier”.

Research implications. The materials of the article and the results obtained can be used in the study of D. I. Fonvizin’s idiostyle and idiolect, in teaching the linguistic disciplines “Stylistics of the Russian language” and “The Language of fiction”.

Aim. To identify invariant and variable features of V. Soloukhin’s lyrical prose miniature: “mental encounters” as paradoxes.

Methodology. A linguistic and stylistic analysis of miniatures is carried out; based on comparison with the invariant of the genre, conclusions are drawn about the specifics of the manifestation of the constitutive features of the lyrical prose miniature by V. Soloukhin.

Results.  The study of miniatures in the given aspect made it possible to present the worldview in “Pebbles in the palm of your hand”, to point out the paradox as one of the most frequent ways of representing the chronotope “encounter”, to consider the idiosyncratic features of its embodiment: stylistic experiment, pun, destruction of implicature, etc.

Research implications. The study clarifies the ideas about the linguistic picture of the world in “Pebbles in the palm of your hand”, about “mental meetings” as a variant of the chronotope “meeting”, about the paradox as a means of realizing “mental meetings”, about the idiosyncratic features of its embodiment.

Aim. To determine the role of sound in the semantic organization of Boris Leonidovich Pasternak’s lyrical works by analyzing the poem “Like a Brazier of Bronze Ashes”.

Methodology. Phonosemantic analysis has become a key research method. The content of the poem is analyzed from the viewpoint of semantics and phonology. The main phonetic processes influencing the disclosure of the author’s intention, the text content t and the reader’s understanding of it are considered. Statistical and functional-semantic methods were used to analyze sounds and their perception by listeners and readers of Boris Pasternak’s poetry; the comparative method became the leading research method, which allows to trace the intersections and coincidences of linguistic laws.

Results. The interrelated processes between rhythmorythmology and semantics of lyrical works are revealed. The content of the text of the poem “Like a Brazier of Bronze Ashes” is analyzed, linguistic and hermeneutic analyses are performed, conclusions are drawn about the features of the poem’s sound system, the inseparable connection of sound, rhythm, rhyme of the poetic text and its meaning.

Research implications. The theoretical and practical significance lies in revealing the features of the phonetic and semantic structure of Boris Pasternak’s poem. The conclusions and observations contained in the article can be applied in literature lessons and literary creativity classes, as well as in the creation of song texts, the study of phonetic patterns of the melody of a poem.

Aim. To study and describe functional features personal and impersonal predicative constructions with semantic of mental state and evaluation, including them as part of rhetorical expressions.

Methodology. The linguistic material from the poetry of A. Akhmatova, S. Esenin and V. Mayakovsky was collected and analysed by using the targeted sampling method. Lexicographic method, functional and semantic method as methods of analysis were also used.

Results. The research revealed that the predicative makes the semantic center of statement, allowing the author to express most fully and capaciously his feelings, state of mind, to evaluate the object or phenomena, to turn poetic text into expressive in combination with distributive words.

Research implications. The study results allow to discover expressive potential of predicative, expand the information about pictorial language of A. Akhmatova, S. Esenin, V. Mayakovsky and can be used for working with poetic texts of other authors of the Silver age. Synthesis of new material on the studied topic allows to re-introduce into scientific turn the animistic predicative notion.

Aim. To study the toponymy of Harbin city founded in 1898 as a result of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), which reflects the specifics of the linguistic and cultural space of the Russian-Chinese border area.

Methodology. Based on a complete selection from the texts of books and short stories of Russian-American writer V. P. Petrov’s “The City on Sungari” of toponyms, urbanonyms and other units, the unique onomastic landscape of the city is determined, in which Russian and Chinese onyms are intertwined in a historical perspective. The descriptive method with its system of procedures for collecting data, primary analysis and presentation of data and their characteristics, quantitative calculations, etc. is used as the main method of analysis. When studying the functioning of Chinese toponyms in the Russian text, elements of a comparative method are used, which allows us to identify common and distinctive properties and signs in different structured languages.

Results. The analysis of toponyms of the book of essays and short stories by the Russian-American writer V. P. Petrov “The City on Sungari” allowed us to establish their important role in the construction of the text: the names of Chinese cities, their parts and objects standing out in them orient the reader in the artistic space. Russian Russians and Russian–speaking people living in China at the end of the XIX – first third of the XX century, not only create their own urbanonymic system in “Russian Harbin”, but also use Chinese toponyms to designate geographical objects existing here. Russian names of cities are becoming an integral part of the usage of Russian people living in China, reflecting the Russian-Chinese interaction in toponymy, the peculiarities of the functioning of proper names in the Russian-Chinese border area.

Research implications. Russian-Chinese borderland toponymic space is being studied for the first time in the article, which creates prerequisites for conducting a frontier analysis of other similar territories; the results can be used in the study of Chinese and Russian onomastics by students, as well as in the study of the work of writers from Russian abroad.

Aim. COMMUNICATION as a sociolinguistic concept is being investigated in order to determine its core and periphery means of semantic space expression.

Methodology. In the course of the research, the methods of component, lexicographic and seme analysis with selecting of the semes and sememes of the concept of COMMUNICATION were used, as well as cognitive and empirical analysis of semantic principles of this conceptual field.

Results.  Based on the results of the analysis of dictionary sources (“Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language” by S. I. Ozhegov, “The Great Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” by S. A. Kuznetsov, “The Great Universal Dictionary of the Russian Language”, etc.) and real language materials, it can be determined that in the structure of conceptual field of COMMUNICATION the core and periphery (immediate and further) are distinguished. There are 4 components in the core: “the relationship between subjects or objects”, “communication”, “connection of something”, “acquaintance”, while its near and far periphery include the dominant semes of each semantic group: “interpersonal relationship”, “inner unity between people”, “objective relationship” (the far periphery: love affair, kinship, friendship, inner connection between reader and writer, logical connection, indirect connection, etc.); “communication between somebody-something”, “technical means of communication”, “department providing communication” (distant peripherals: intercity communication, district communication, telephone, Internet, communication service mail, communication channel, communication department, etc.); “mutual attraction”, “cohesion”, “part of a building structure” (the far periphery: the connection of atoms in a molecule, clay for stones, structure, etc.); “useful acquaintance” (the far periphery: an influential person, patronage, fraud, etc.).

Research implications. The concept of COMMUNICATION in the Russian language is one of the basic in the system of socio-cultural values of a person. This is due to the fact that COMMUNICATION as a linguistic phenomenon affects a person’s mentality throughout his/ her social life. In the Russian language, many linguistic problems of modern cognitive and sociolinguistic practices remain understudied. The results of the research can be used in describing the cognitive characteristics of concepts, as well as in teaching linguistic courses “Modern Russian language” (“Lexicology”), “Cognitive Linguistics”, “Cultural Language Studies”, “Linguistic text analysis”, “Philological text analysis”.

Aim. To consider and describe the origin and formation of the Gothic novel and its genre typology in literature.

Methodology. The methodology of the research is based on such general and special scientific methods as diachronic analysis, interpretative analysis, linguistic and cultural analysis, comparative and structural analysis.

Results. The main evolutionary stages of the Gothic novel are described. The characteristic storylines and boundaries of the Gothic novel are highlighted. The cultural features of Gothic works by French, British, Russian and American authors are compared. The influence of Gothic works on the formation of other genres of literature, cinema, music and computer games is noted.

Research implications. The study contributes to the scientific study of the Gothic novel, in particular French, British, Russian and American. The presented scientific information is a complete, comprehensive and final interpretation of the essence under study, reveals its main genre characteristics and features, which is of great theoretical importance for literature in the aspect of studying the features of this literary genre.

Aim. Horror as an aesthetic phenomenon has maintained a high popularity rating for over a century. Viewers, readers, and listeners of different age groups prefer works with horror elements; there appear communities and other kinds of fan groups for whom the feeling of fear is the basis of intrigue (Horrorscope, Club of Horror Lovers, Association of Horror Authors, etc.). Horror has long been the subject of conferences and discussions, which indicates its relevance in scientific sphere. As a syncretic phenomenon, this modern aesthetic phenomenon has its own history, dating back to ancient literary sources, in which the recipient intentionally triggers a feeling of fear. In the ballad, fear is one of the significant elements of intrigue. The author of this article has attempted to find out why horror researchers do not attribute the ballad to the sources of this cultural and aesthetic phenomenon, despite a number of similar elements of poetics.

Methodology. The key research method is the comparative historical one. By comparing the plot, ideological, and philosophical specifics of a number of literary Western European ballads and films recognized as the horror genre, the fundamental similarities and differences between the literary ballad and horror were identified. Based on the results obtained, a sketch of the classification of the artistic parameters of the ballad and horror is outlined.

Results. The arguments are given that the ballad could not become a source for horror, despite a number of common features, due to the difference in the author’s position, figurative system, ideological content, ethical and philosophical orientation.

Research implications. The article discloses similar and different features of the poetics of literary ballad and horror, which gives a more complete picture of the works of literature and cinema containing a horror element. The results obtained can be used both for scientific purposes and in the field of teaching.

Aim. To identify the uniqueness of Derzhavin’s poetic cosmology, which is represented in all its diversity in the poet’s philosophical odes.

Methodology. The object of the research is the principles of creating outer space in Derzhavin’s philosophical poetry. Through the analysis of the semantic content of the image of the night, moon and stars in such Derzhavin’s works as “God”, “Calmed Disbelief”, “Drowning”, “Volkhov Kubre”, “Lantern”, a holistic understanding of the poet’s worldview is provided. The methodology of the work is based on the use of cultural, historical, biographical, aesthetic methods and approaches that allow us to consider the image of the universe in the context of the established range of themes and moods of the turn of the 18th – 19th century from the viewpoint of positions immanent to this period.

Results. The article specifies the significance of Derzhavin’s artistic system in the figurative representation of the universe in Russian literature at the turn of the 18th – 19th century. The essence of Derzhavin’s poetic cosmology lies in the desire to comprehend Christian truths about God’s Majesty through the measurement of the universe with an all-encompassing spiritual vision, to find visible proof of the triumph of peace in nature. Through contemplation of grandiose paintings of the cosmos, Derzhavin defined a new way of depicting the universe through an emotional-associative series, which allowed him to consider his philosophical poetry in unity with the artistic foundations of Russian Romanticism. In philosophical odes, night is presented as an ephemeral boundary that hides the vanity of earthly life and reveals a spherically arranged sky with heavenly bodies as a symbolic embodiment of an ideal world raised above everyday life. Understanding the abyss created from chaos by the cosmos, Derzhavin treats contemplation of every detail of this space as an intuitive possibility of comprehending God, finding the falsity of those scientific breakthroughs that man seeks to liken himself to the Creator, thereby destroying the foundations of the universe.

Research implications. The theoretical significance of the study is related to the identification of the innovation of Derzhavin’s poetic cosmology in relation to previous physico-theological poetry, which consists in expanding the image of outer space through the use of large and super-large plans, color and light imagery, and clarifying the emotional-associative complex for representing the cosmos.

Aim. To study the poetics of narration in L. M. Leonov’s short story “Tuatamur” by analyzing the chronotope, the features of plot construction, the image and speech of the exotic narrator.

Methodology. Comparative and historical-literary methods were used in the course of this study. The content of the study is to identify the features of the spatial and temporal organization of the text, genre elements in the structure of the narrative and narrative techniques. The analysis of the views of researchers of Leonov’s early work on the organization of narration in his stories of the 1920s is given.

Results. The analysis showed that the poetics of narration in “Tuatamur” serves to express the idea of the cyclical nature of time and historical process, it consists of explicit and implicit values. Based on an analysis of narrative techniques, it was established that features of myth and legend are reflected in the work.

Research implications. The view on the problems of Leonov’s early work has been updated. The poetics of narration on behalf of the participant of the Mongol-Tatar invasion, the specific structure of the composition, the idea of the cyclical nature of time and the value approach to the inner world of man in the story “Tuatamur” are revealed.

Aim. To explore the varieties of retribution motives in the stories of A. I. Kuprin of the 90s of the XIX century.

Methodology. The article analyzes the diversity of retribution motives in the stories of A. I. Kuprin of the 90s of the XIX century. These motives perform an important substantive and semantic function. Attention is paid to those works where the problem of punishment for sins is solved indirectly: there is no direct author’s assessment of what is happening. The methodology is based on descriptive and comparative research methods.

Results. In the three stories studied, there is a different artistic form of realization of the motives of retribution. In the story “On the River”, the motive of punishment for what is done is presented in the context of landscape painting: nature opposes human sinfulness, in the story “Unspoken Revision” the motive of punishment is interpreted as self-punishment, the story “Confusion” conveys the motive of retribution as a fateful blow. The article concludes that the motives of retaliation are part of the system of axiological guidelines in Kuprin’s prose.

Research implications. The analysis of the stories expands the understanding of the features of the content and form of the early stories of A. I. Kuprin, emphasizes the system of value orientations of the writer.

Aim. To form a scientific concept explaining the meaning of irony in the poetics of the two worlds by Pyotr Nikolaevich Mamonov.

Methodology. With the help of structural, semiotic and cultural-historical methods, the poetic lyrics of the songs of the musical group “Sounds of Mu”, authored by P. N. Mamonov, are analyzed. In particular, the specifics of the subjective organization of these poetic texts, the image of the lyrical hero, the system of motives associated with irony as a mode of perception of reality are studied.

Results. It is proved that irony is one of the most important forms of psychological doublespeak in P. N. Mamonov’s poetics. It is associated with the motives of subordination to the system, ridiculing the lyrical character and his self-exposure, going beyond the norm. It is implemented through absurdity, grotesque, hyperbole, pleonasm, antiphrasis and becomes an expression of a gloomy worldview, including an understanding of the spiritual paths of the epoch and the paradoxical nature of life.

Research implications. The work explores the poetic legacy of P. N. Mamonov, almost forgotten by Russian literary criticism. Almost all the poetic texts studied in the work are subjected to scientific understanding for the first time. The study of the interaction of paradox and absurdity as aesthetic categories becomes productive. The understanding of the specifics of the two worlds in Russian rock poetry is enriched.

Aim. To reveal the theme of family and marriage in the epic novel by A. N. Tolstoy “Peter the First” through the author’s assessment of the emperor’s sister’s image. To consider this problem in detail through the love experiences of royalty.

Methodology. To reveal the topic, analytical and comparative methods of studying literary text are used. Special attention is paid to the poetics of creating the image of Peter the Great’s sister, Tsarevna Natalia Alekseevna. A detailed and comprehensive understanding of her character is given, which helps not only in revealing the complex image, but also leads to an understanding of the global moral issues raised by the author of the changes in the way of life of the Russian state under the influence of European innovations. This internal psychological struggle that overcomes the feminine nature of doubt, becomes a prototype of the external struggle between old foundations and new trends.

Results. The study shows how the writer, through specific everyday issues and family themes, addresses global moral and philosophical problems of the collision of Eastern and Western cultures and the preservation of Russian identity. The stylistic and artistic features that help the author to reveal the fullness of social phenomena of that period are revealed.

Research implications. This study confirms that family issues play an important role in A. N. Tolstoy’s work. The significance of the work lies in the in-depth and concrete comprehension of the plastic embodiment of the stated theme.