No 11 (2025)

The subject of the research article is the plot of the Sakha heroic epic. The object of the research is the olonkho "Erbekhtei Mergen" by B. A. Alexeev from the Vilyui region, recorded in 1938 during the Vilyui expedition. The text was prepared for publication by the author of this article in 2017. The relevance of the article is determined by the reassessment of established classifications of olonkho: using the text "Erbekhtei Mergen" as an example, it is argued that the criterion of historical memory is more significant than the presence of archaism, and the thesis about the absence of early plots in the Vilyui tradition is refuted, demonstrating its complex cultural synthesis. The goal of the work is to justify the attribution of the olonkho of the Vilyui storyteller B. A. Alexeev "Erbekhtei Mergen" to the plot-thematic cycle dedicated to the settlement of the Middle World, as well as to identify the features of the Vilyui epic tradition. The work uses structural, structural-semantic, and comparative analysis methods. The methodological basis of the work is the classification of the plots of the Sakha epic developed by N. V. Emelyanov and the analysis of the plot model proposed by I. V. Yershova. The conclusions of the research may find application in folkloristics in the study of the poetics of epic texts and in the development of educational courses on Sakha folklore. The research introduces for the first time the text of an olonkho from the Vilyui tradition into scientific circulation, representing an early plot layer, which defines its main novelty. The study of the olonkho "Erbekhtei Mergen" by B. A. Alexeev revealed the presence of early plots about the settlement of the Middle World in the Vilyui epic tradition. Previously, it was mistakenly attributed to plots about ancestors; however, this tale reveals a conflict in family relationships, where close people become a source of discord. The widely spread motif of courtship of a girl-werewolf, found from the Kolyma to Vilyui, confirms the ancient origin of the plot. The analysis revealed typological similarities with central Sakha versions ("The Son of the Horse Dyiray Byogyo" by I. I. Burnashev—Tong Suorun, "The Son of the Horse Dyiray Berken" by U. G. Noksorov, "The Son of the Horse Dyiray Hero" by G. K. Vasiliev) and northeastern versions ("Erbekhchin Mergen" by D. G. Zhirkov). However, the Vilyui tradition has its own specificity: a concise structure (a brief introduction and a reduced ending), the absence of the image of the sacred tree, as well as linguistic-cultural borrowings from Tungus and Russian traditions in the poetics of the text.

The subject of the analysis is magical realism, interpreted as a multidimensional concept in various fields of art: artistic method, artistic mythological thinking, literary direction. Magical realism is an artistic method that allows combining the mythological, irrational beginnings of literary texts with a realistic description of the surrounding reality. The aim of the work is to create a multimodal dictionary of terms and personalities of magical realism to organize information about this phenomenon. The dictionary of terms and personalities of magical realism can be used in teaching literary theory, the history of Spanish, Belgian, Austrian, Chilean, Brazilian, and Russian literature. The relevance of the research is determined by a complex of modern scientific, cultural and educational trends: to systematize knowledge about the manifestations of magical realism in Russian, Spanish and Latin American literature. The methodology of the research consisted in identifying the key words-terms of magical realism, creating the principles of a dictionary entry, structuring a dictionary entry using a multimodal approach. The result of the research was a draft dictionary of terms and personalities of magical realism. The dictionary of terms and personalities of magical realism can be used in teaching literary theory, the history of Spanish, Belgian, Austrian, Chilean, Brazilian, and Russian literature. The study of the phenomenon of mythological awareness of reality within the framework of magical realism can become the basis for the analysis of linguistic culture, the value dominants of peoples. Modern lexicographic works, reflecting the polycode nature of texts, being part of the discursive Internet space, should combine various semiotic codes within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm. Therefore, the proposed vocabulary of terms and personalities of magical realism will be multimodal, combining verbal and non-verbal sign systems. An attempt to systematize theoretical information and provide the most complete list of representatives and works of magical realism in various fields of art represents this phenomenon and allows us to identify common typical features, draw a line between magical realism and other trends and methods of modern art.

Subject of the research — the literary relations between Iakinf (Bichurin), the founder of Russian Sinology, and M. P. Pogodin, a writer, historian, and editor of the journals Moskovskii vestnik and Moskvityanin. The main sources are the correspondence between the two scholar-writers and Iakinf’s publications in the journals edited by Pogodin. The study analyzes how Iakinf’s journalistic activity influenced his development as a writer engaged in the popularization of knowledge about China, Mongolia, and Central Asia, and how, in turn, he contributed to shaping the literary and scholarly discourse in Pogodin’s journals. Special attention is given to Iakinf’s participation in the discussion of issues related to Old Russian history on the pages of Moskvityanin. The work refines the understanding of the interaction between the two authors and identifies Iakinf’s role in the formation of the intellectual environment of early nineteenth-century Russia. The research employs traditional literary methods, including the cultural-historical approach, as well as source-critical and textological analysis. The novelty of the study lies in its results, which make it possible to trace the dynamics and mechanisms of the literary relationship between Iakinf and Pogodin and to clarify the nature of their interaction both in science and in literature — in the process of preparing materials for literary journals. The conducted research allows us to conclude that Iakinf’s literary and journalistic activities and his collaboration with Pogodin were of paramount importance for the popularization of knowledge about China in Russia during the first half of the nineteenth century: it was precisely the literary milieu that became the space for the institutionalization of this knowledge and its integration into the system of Russian literary culture.

Russian media actively utilize the achievements of modern sociological science, enriching media discourse with scientific concepts. It is believed that the collaboration between journalism and sociology can enhance the quality of the former, as well as its credibility and objectivity. The subject of this article is the sociological concepts conveyed by Russian media. The relevance of addressing this topic is underscored by the fact that many concepts in sociological science are contentious. In sociological literature, it is customary to distinguish between scientific and everyday concepts. Both types can equally be found in the media. The aim of this article is to clarify the specifics of the use of sociological concepts by journalists in the materials of contemporary Russian media and to justify the necessity of enhancing the sociological culture of journalists during their training in higher education institutions. The methodological foundation of the article consists of the ideas of several well-known sociologists regarding the interpretation of sociological concepts. The empirical basis of the work included materials from leading online media in Russia: kommersant.ru, lenta.ru, mk.ru, and ria.ru. Content analysis and traditional (classical) analysis of individual journalistic materials were used as methods for collecting empirical information. The article analyzes the practice of using sociological concepts by Russian journalists using the concept of "middle class" as an example. The study revealed that in the surveyed media, the middle class is presented as a real existing social group. Journalists typically describe it in economic and political contexts. The novelty of the work lies in the conclusion that journalists from the surveyed outlets tend to use everyday rather than scientific concepts when describing the middle class. Accordingly, journalists do not so much reflect reality as generate illusory perceptions of the surrounding world among the audience. The article raises the question of the necessity to strengthen the sociological training of future journalists and to study the basic sociological concepts more deeply within academic sociology courses.

The study examines the functional role of ekphrasis in the prose of A. M. Remizov and the formation of his unique visual-verbal “cultural code,” using the works The Pond (1905), The Weeping Ditch(1914–1918), and The Judgment of God (1925) as primary material. The aim of the research is to reconstruct Remizov’s system of visual codes and to identify how the lubok print, satirical caricature, and icon become carriers of cultural memory and instruments for comprehending the spiritual crisis of the Silver Age and the period of emigration. The focus lies on the interaction between image and word, in which visual motifs do not simply illustrate the text but create a specific artistic optics that shapes the structure of Remizov’s myth-making. Ekphrasis in Remizov’s works functions as a narrative mechanism capable of transforming an everyday object into a symbol, and a symbol into an element of the author’s metatext, reflecting the movement from reality toward a dreamlike, metaphysical depth. Thus, the analysis of visual codes makes it possible to reveal the inner dynamics of the writer’s artistic world. The methodological framework includes an intermedial approach, structural-semiotic and motif analysis, as well as the comparison of Remizov’s texts with iconographic and lubok traditions, European painting, and the visual satire of the early twentieth century. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that this is the first systematic description of Remizov’s visual code as an integrated intermedial system, in which the lubok, the icon, and the caricature function as “mnemonic supports” and mechanisms for interpreting cultural experience. The results obtained may be used for further research on the poetics of the Silver Age, issues of intermediality, visual theology, and the mechanisms of cultural memory in twentieth-century Russian literature. The study shows that lubok ekphrasis in The Pond (the image of the lion, the scene of “Fornication,” etc.) fulfills a symbolic-psychological function, marking the destruction of the family’s sacred space. In The Weeping Ditch, the caricature from Satiricon visualizes the hidden structure of the love triangle and the opposition between “old” and “new” Russia, intensifying the text’s ironic dimension. In The Judgment of God, the icon Joy of All Who Sorrow forms the semantic center of the narrative, serving as a mediator between human and divine will and modeling the experience of faith under conditions of historical catastrophe and exile.

This study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the discursive strategies employed in covering the Russian-Ukrainian armed conflict by leading online socio-political publications in the Russian Federation and Ukraine. The relevance of this work is determined by the key role of digital media in shaping public opinion and national narratives in the context of contemporary information warfare. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the study is a synthesis of key tenets of mediatization theories, which postulate the transformative impact of media on the perception of social reality, and framing, which allows for the identification of stable interpretative schemes that shape audience perceptions of events. An important aspect of this theoretical framework is the consideration of media as an active agent, not simply relaying but also generating political and social meanings. The empirical basis of the study was a representative dataset comprising over 1,500 text materials selected from four key online publications in the two countries for a representative chronological period from May 2 to 8, 2023. To achieve the study's objective, a combined methodology was used, integrating quantitative content analysis aimed at identifying statistically significant frequencies of key themes and lexical markers, as well as qualitative methods—critical discourse analysis and frame analysis—which enabled an in-depth reconstruction of implicit meanings and rhetorical models. The analysis identified and systematized two fundamentally different models of media communication. It was established that the discourse of Ukrainian publications is characterized by the dominance of an emotional-mobilization paradigm, which is implemented through strategies of personification (an emphasis on personal stories and testimonies), the glorification of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the consistent demonization of the opponent, which together form a binary picture of the confrontation. In contrast, Russian publications demonstrate a commitment to a formalized-institutional model, characterized by depersonalized narratives, the use of bureaucratic language, and a legitimizing discourse that emphasizes the legitimacy and validity of state institutions' actions. The findings suggest that the discursive dualism identified is driven not only by opportunistic ideological attitudes but also by fundamental institutional differences in the two countries' media systems, including legal regimes, the degree of state influence, and dominant models of civic identity. Thus, the study's findings support the thesis that, in times of international conflict, media actively construct parallel social realities, each aimed at internally consolidating its audience and legitimizing the respective state's position in the geopolitical arena.

The object of research was 600 microcontexts from five issues of the information student youth magazine "Nota bene! Pay attention," published by the North Caucasus Federal University, which constitute a holistic narrative sequence. The subject of the study is the specifics of the functioning of verbal and creolized means of expressing subjective-modal relationships in the non-fiction Russian-language narrative of a student youth magazine. The relevance of this research is linked to the anthropocentric turn in the modern cognitive-discursive linguistic paradigm, which brings to the forefront the study of subjective-modal evaluative overtones of the meaning of the verbal macro-sign. The aim of the study is to identify the cognitively-discursively conditioned features of linguistic and non-verbal means that express subjective modality in the polytextual narrative of the information student youth magazine in Russian. Research methods include contextual-hermeneutic analysis of narrative frame texts, critical discourse analysis, and pragmalinguistic analysis to establish the characteristics of axiologically marked subjective modality and the persuasiveness of the narrative. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the identification of verbal means of expressing subjective modality in the polytextual non-fiction narrative of the student magazine, among which emotionally evaluative epithets, metaphors, allusions, modified phraseologisms, and epiphoras prevail. The frequency of such creolized means of expressing subjective modality as emojis and photo illustrations has also been noted. A particular contribution of the author to the study of subjective modality in the polytextual narrative of the student youth magazine is the revelation of the fact that the positive subjective modal assessment of one's own activities is carried out by the narrator not only at the verbal and paralinguistic levels but also through the selection of characters in the diegesis, where only those actors who successfully function in academic discourse are placed. The study revealed an absolute dominance of positive subjective-modal evaluativeness in the polycode narrative of the information student youth magazine, which is determined by the intended narrator's persuasive effect of the narrative aimed at advertising the university among potential applicants.

The article is dedicated to the study of the features of interpreting idioms and culturally marked elements in machine translation from Russian to English using neural network systems such as ChatGPT, DeepL, and Google Translate. The focus is on the problem of preserving the idiomatic meaning and cultural connotations, as well as the degree of cognitive adaptation of artificial intelligence to nationally specific realities. The relevance of this study is determined by the fact that in the era of global communication and digital interaction, language models become tools not only for interlingual exchange but also for cultural mediation. The question of whether artificial intelligence is capable of conveying the cultural meanings behind idioms, realities, and metaphors has fundamental significance for both translation theory and cognitive linguistics. The author conducts a corpus-based comparison of translations of real idioms and fixed expressions, identifying typical errors such as calque, semantic alignment, loss of imagery, and pragmatic meaning. Based on the analysis, a classification of translation strategies used by neural network systems is proposed: literal translation, functional adaptation, and cognitive substitution. The theoretical significance of the work lies in deepening the understanding of the mechanisms of interaction between cognitive and cultural factors in machine translation. The practical significance lies in the possibility of applying the results obtained in the development of multimodal translation models aimed at preserving the national-cultural component. It is concluded that despite the high level of syntactic and lexical accuracy, neural network models do not provide full cultural equivalence and require the integration of cognitive-cultural corpora into the training process. The theoretical implications of the results consist in clarifying the boundary between "formal equivalence" and "cognitive-cultural adequacy" in the context of machine translation. Neural network models, even with access to extensive discursive data, still imitate rather than reproduce cultural memory and empathetic understanding necessary for a sustainable interpretation of figurative units. This means that progress in the field of neuro-translation is directly related to the inclusion of specialized cultural corpora, knowledge graphs, and annotated phraseological resources in training, as well as the development of mechanisms for global contextual attention capable of considering not only adjacent sentences but also genre-rhetorical conventions of the text.

This article explores the mythopoetics of the early work of N. V. Gogol, specifically the mythopoetic rituals and unique chronotopes in his tale "Viy." This tale vividly reflects the mythological nature inherent in the writer's early creativity. The tale not only inherits the traditions of Little Russian folklore but also contains unique creative ideas from the author, creating his own Gogolian mythological world. The author examines the rituals of transition in time and space in detail, as well as the structure of the tale from the perspective of the morphology of a fairy tale. Special attention is given to the interaction of space and time in Gogol's work, which creates extraordinary experiences for readers. According to the author, these unique interactions form special Gogolian chronotopes that make his works truly unforgettable. In this article, the author analyzes the rituals described in the tale from the standpoint of the morphology of the magic fairy tale by V. Y. Propp, M. M. Bakhtin's chronotope, and Arnold van Gennep's transition rituals. The main findings of the study suggest that the chronotopes presented in the tale, whether "road" or "castle," possess creative features characteristic of Gogol. From a temporal perspective, in the world of "Viy," day personifies the real world, while night represents the magical one. Therefore, all supernatural phenomena in the tale occur after sunset. The speed of the flow of time during the day is relatively high, while at night time moves slowly. This is reflected in the novel through lengthy descriptions. The research also revealed that Gogol prefers to describe "vertical" space rather than traditional "horizontal" space. This feature is manifested in the "night flight" and "night prayer." The young lady always wields magical power. The themes of "initiation" and "wedding" are also reflected in the tale, which is mirrored in other early works of Gogol.

The object of literary research is L. I. Borodin's short story "Fluctuation". The subject of the study in the article is the specifics of the plot in this work. The purpose of the work is to identify the duality of the events that make up the plot of the story. The author of the article sets himself the task of showing that the main ones can be interpreted both as ordinary and as completely unusual, even fantastic. The author of the work seeks to prove that the nature of the interpretation of what is happening in the story depends on the point of view of the main character, with whom the analyzed events are connected, from a look at the essence of his personality and his life. It also explores the construction of a plot in which the chain of events is not one-line. It is built as a "sine wave" – a transition from the narrative of everyday life to the very events in which you can see both the typical and the exceptional.  Using the method of holistic text analysis makes it possible to see the substantive aspects through the prism of the artistic form, to determine the role of the plot in revealing the image of the hero, the meaning of the title of the story and the main idea of the author, who seeks to emphasize the limitations of an unambiguous understanding of people and events. The scientific novelty of this article is determined by the fact that L. I. Borodin's story "Fluctuation" had not previously become the object of detailed research in Russian literary criticism, the duality of its plot was not considered in scientific works. The study of this story from the point of view of plot construction and its functions leads the author of the article to the following conclusions. Each of the main events that make up the storyline of the work has a dual character: it can be interpreted both as part of everyday life and as a manifestation of a global, universal principle, a higher meaning. In the very nature of the plot, you can see constant fluctuations from ordinary events to something inexplicable. This construction of the event line serves to reveal the character of the hero, which combines the features of both a typical mentally ill person and a brilliant personality endowed with superpowers. The practical significance of the article lies in the possibility of its application in the school and university study of literature at the beginning of the XXI century.

The relevance of the study is determined by the scientific significance of the problem of urban text as one of the main directions of modern Russian literary history. The study of the regional literary process – Königsberg/Kaliningrad – helps to identify its local specifics. The article systematically examines the image of the monastery of St. Lipa in the context of the modern urban landscape. The uniqueness of the image, memorable from the first pages due to its vivid verbal description, is determined by the cultural and historical context and local mythology. The image of the monastery of St. Lipa is presented in the article as a physical reality and literary space, which is associated with the development of one of the leading themes of the novel "The Devil's Elixir" - retribution for the guilt of ancestors. References to this image are made throughout the narrative; it is associated with the possibility of atonement for the guilt of a criminal family. The author uses a comprehensive literary approach that combines historical-cultural, biographical, and comparative-typological methods. It is shown how the plot and motive content of the novel “The Devil’s Elixir” relates to the image of the monastery of St. Lipa: the motives of pilgrimage/path, atonement for sin, mysterious circumstances of birth, “heavenly consolation” became especially significant in the narrative. The leitmotif is Medard’s memory of his early childhood spent in the monastery of St. Linden, which accompanies him in a “brightly colorful world” and performs a saving function. Attention is paid to the images of the founder of the family, the “old pilgrim”, the “wonderful child”, the mysterious meeting with whom took place in the monastery of St. Lipa and became fateful. The novelty of the study is related to the fact that the historical and cultural model of Königsberg-Kaliningrad has been clarified. The problem of genius loci is analyzed using the life of E. T. A. Hoffmann and his novel “The Devil’s Elixir”. This approach made it possible to clarify the specifics of the space of Königsberg/Kaliningrad, which preserves the memory of the brilliant romantic and his artistic world.

The subject of this study is the concept of "eurysemy" in Russian linguistics, which is undergoing critical re-evaluation. The object of analysis comprises theoretical positions of Russian linguists, who interpret eurysemy as a special semantic phenomenon characterized by broad denotative reference and contextual conditioning of meaning. The author examines in detail such aspects of the problem as the methodological inconsistency of the term "eurysemy," the lack of clear criteria for its identification, and the conflation of this concept with other linguistic categories. Particular attention is given to analyzing the argumentation that the observed "broad meaning" is not an independent phenomenon but rather a consequence of typological features of the grammatical structure of compared languages, primarily the differences between analytic and synthetic language systems. The study employs the method of critical analysis of theoretical positions based on the principle of "Occam's Razor," which excludes the introduction of redundant entities. Methods of comparative linguistics are used to demonstrate the typological conditioning of the phenomenon, as well as componential analysis to identify semantic patterns. The methodological framework includes works on general semantics and language typology. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematic deconstruction of the concept of "eurysemy" as methodologically unsound. The author proves that the observed phenomena of "broad meaning" represent: 1) the result of cross-linguistic comparison rather than an inherent property of vocabulary; 2) a manifestation of typological differences between analytic and synthetic languages; 3) a consequence of conflating various linguistic phenomena (polysemy, grammaticalization, syntagmatic variability). The main conclusion of the study is that eurysemy does not qualify as an independent linguistic phenomenon, as it fails to meet the criteria of universality, systematicity, and verifiability. The practical significance of the research lies in developing a more rigorous methodological approach to analyzing semantic phenomena without resorting to terminologically redundant constructs.

O. A. Sedakova, philologist, theologian, translator, teacher, is one of the prominent figures in the modern literature. The author believes that in Sedakova's works intertextuality is highly likely realized both as a principle and a method of her poetics. Thus, Sedakova's lyrics have a high intertextual potential. For now the nature, functions and mechanisms of intertextuality require clarification. It determines the relevance and novelty of our paper. So, the scope of the study is the specifics and functioning of intertextuality in Olga Sedakova's poem The Presong (studying the Homer image). In our research intertextual analysis is based on the developments of R. Dressler, V. Bogrand, V. E. Chernyavskaya and includes elements of I. R. Galperin's theory of textual informativeness, comparative method and motivic analysis. In Sedakova's semantically complicated poem The Presong intertextuality turns out to be a constituent component, forming the image of Homer. Typological and referential links in this poem are presented as allusions; their recognition requires the reader to have developed intertextual competence. There are no precedent phenomena, acting as facts of intertextuality in the The Presong, but only words of everyday language that acquire specificity of an intertextual unit in the poem’s context. Due to the contextual conditionality of the word/image, the poem has a polysemous text. The Homer’s image consists of two motive complexes; we called them "optical" and "Homeric poetics". The "optical" group combines a reference to the Homeric question, several conventional facts about the biographical Homer, as well as elements of Natural philosophy from his poems. The conceptual stratum of the poem is closely related to the factual one: the physical blindness of the ancient poet becomes a marker of Homer’s relation with divine locus. And Homer, endowed with a special vision, turns into an inspirer of the subsequent poetic tradition.

This study examines the concepts of 'general,' 'abstract', and 'broad' meanings within the context of eurysemy. Specifically, it focuses on the concept of shirokoznachnost' or 'eurysemy,' which purportedly gives rise to these meanings. The objective of this paper is to critically analyze these concepts and demonstrate that interpreting 'eurysemy' as a unified, general, and abstract concept is unfounded. The study aims to: analyze the concepts of 'general' and 'invariant' meanings, define the scope of the term 'general meaning' and its interpretation in relation to eurysemy, identify and describe characteristics of eurysemy that cannot be reduced to a single 'general' meaning, which lead to how these characteristics contribute to the illusion of polysemy. The study employs a deductive method to verify existing theories, a logical comparison method to support arguments, and a continuous sampling method to analyze linguistic examples. Introspection is also utilized to deepen the understanding of the phenomena under consideration. The novelty of this research lies in its systematic critique of the term 'eurysemy,' demonstrating that its usage is unjustified. The study argues that 'eurysemy' is a misleading concept, distinct from the linguistic phenomenon of polysemy, often subsumed under the notion of 'general meaning.' The illusion of eurysemy arises from comparing the synthetic nature of Russian with the analytic tendencies of other languages. This discrepancy is particularly evident in the definition of 'broad meaning,' which is often reduced to notions of broad compatibility, either direct or indirect. The findings indicate that 'eurysemy' cannot be considered a legitimate linguistic phenomenon. Instead, the notion of 'broad meaning' is a construct shaped by cross-linguistic comparisons and lacks an independent conceptual basis.