The conceptual framework of I.A. Bunin's short story 'The Saints'

M.I. Kuzmina

Linguistics University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod, 603155 Russia

E-mail: kuzmina-margarita.2015@yandex.ru

Received September 13, 2021

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Full text PDF

DOI: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.4-5.138-153

For citation: Kuzmina M.I. The conceptual framework of I.A. Bunin’s short story “The Saints”. Uchenye Zapiski Kazanskogo Universiteta. Seriya Gumanitarnye Nauki, 2021, vol. 163, no. 4–5, pp. 138–153. doi: 10.26907/2541-7738.2021.4-5.138-153. (In Russian) 

Abstract

The conceptual framework of I.A. Bunin’s short story “The Saints” (1914) was analyzed with regard to its connection with the Orthodox axiology. The relevance of the paper is determined by the steady interest of modern linguistics in the study of the religious conceptual framework and its representative vocabulary. The means of Orthodox semantics explication in the literary text were analyzed. The onomastic units of the story and their conceptual significance were considered. The paper uses a complex research methodology that enables a comprehensive study of the linguistic representation of the meaning of the concept: the method of conceptual analysis, the method of component analysis, the method of continuous sampling. As a result of the study, the conceptual framework of I. A. Bunin’s story “The Saints” was reconstructed. It was revealed that the conceptual framework of this story is based on the following concepts: saint, salvation, miracle, suffering, crying, joy, love, longing, icon, etc. Particular conclusions were made about the distinctive features of I.A. Bunin’s poetics: the conceptualization and strengthening of the value component of the meanings of individual lexical units in the literary text. The ways used by I.A. Bunin to shape the meaning of concepts in the literary text were determined: the expansion of the semantic volume of the word, binary oppositions, associative connections with different concepts, comparative constructions. The study can be helpful in special courses on cultural linguistics, as well as on the problems of studying the writer’s linguistic worldview.

Keywords: semantics of language units, artistic text, concept, conceptual framework, writer’s linguistic worldview, I.A. Bunin, Orthodox worldview, proper name

Acknowledgements. The study was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 20-012-00310).

References

1. Stepanov Yu.S. Konstanty. Slovar’ russkoi kul’tury [Constants. Dictionary of Russian Culture]. Moscow, Shk. “Yazyki Russ. Kul’t.”, 1997, 824 p. (In Russian)
2. Ogneva E.A. Kognitivnoe modelirovanie kontseptosfery khudozhestvennogo teksta [Cognitive Modelling of the Conceptual Framework of a Literary Text]. Moscow, Editus, 2013. 282 p. (In Russian)
3. Kolosova E., Matskevich A. Semantic transformations of the concept “saint” in the Russian language. Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Linguistica Rossica, 2016, no. 13, pp. 37–43. (In Russian)
4. Karasik V.I. Conceptualizing a miracle. Povolzhskii Pedagogicheskii Vestnik, 2017, vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 25–33. (In Russian)
5. Dobrotvorskii M.I. The idea of Russian holiness and the Bunin saints. Russkoe Vozrozhdenie, 1981, no. 16. Available at: http://ricolor.org/arhiv/russkoe_vozrojdenie/1981/10/. (In Russian)
6. Skripnikova T.I. The images of saints in I.A. Bunin’s works. Tvorchestvo I.A. Bunina i filosofsko-khudozhestvennye iskaniya na rubezhe XX – XXI vekov: materialy Mezhdunar. nauch. konf., posvyashchennoi 135-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya pisatelya [I.A. Bunin’s Works and Philosophical and Artistic Strivings at the Turn of the 20th–21st Centuries]. Borisova N.V. (Ed.). Yelets, Eletskii Gos. Univ. im. I.A. Bunina, 2006, pp. 110–116. (In Russian)
7. Agafonova V.D. Biblical-Christian problems in the works of I.A. Bunin. Cand. Philol. Diss. Moscow, 2009. 144 p. (In Russian)
8. Mikhalev D. I.A. Bunin, a Russian poet and wanderer. “Spas” Newspaper, no. 5. Available at: http://www.ubrus.org/newspaper-spas-article/?id=1497. (In Russian)
9. Meshcheryakova O.A., Zubtsova M.L. Perceptual vocabulary in the stories “Living Relic” by I.S. Turgenev and “The Saints” by I.A. Bunin. I.A. Bunin: ot veka XX k veku XXI: materialy yubileinoi vseros. (s mezhdunarodnym uchastiem) nauch. konf. [I.A. Bunin: From the 20th to 21st Century: Proc. Jubilee All-Russ. (with Int. Participation) Sci. Conf.]. Yelets, Eletskii Gos. Univ. im. I.A. Bunina, 2018, pp. 165–173. (In Russian)
10. Novikova-Stroganova A.A. The Christian world of I.A. Bunin (an essay on the life and work of I.A. Bunin). Available at: http://oroik.by/xristianskij-mir-i-a-bunina/. (In Russian)
11. Novikova-Stroganova A.A. Holiness and Christmastide in Ivan Bunin’s stories. Available at: http://xn--80alhdjhdcxhy5hl.xn--p1ai/content/svyatost-i-svyatki-v-rasskazah-ivana-bunina. (In Russian)
12. Lashkov A. (protoiereus). There is something more than Russia. This is my God and my soul. On the 150th birth anniversary of Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Available at: https://pravoslavie.ru/134814.html. (In Russian)
13. Toporov V.N. Svyatost’ i svyatye v russkoi dukhovnoi kul’ture [Holiness and Saints in Russian Spiritual Culture]. Vol. 1: The first century of Christianity in Rus’. Moscow, Gnozis, Shk. “Yazyki Russ. Kul’t.”, 1995. 875 p. (In Russian)
14. Shesterkina N.V. The relationship of the concepts “light” – “holy” in the Russian language. Lingua Mobilis, 2010, no. 3, pp. 103–108. (In Russian)
15. Dmitrieva N.M., Porol’ O.A. Verbalization of the concept “holiness” in the Church Slavonic and Old Russian languages: An ethical aspect. Vestnik Orenburgskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta, 2016, no. 1, pp. 53–58. (In Russian)
16. Il’in I.A. “The Pilgrimage” by I.S. Shmelev. In: Shmelev I.S. Bogomol’e [The Pilgrimage]. Moscow, Pravoslavnoe Slovo, 1997, pp. 9–10. (In Russian)
17. Chesnokova L.V. Longing as a national concept of Russian culture. Istoricheskie, filosofskie, politicheskie i yuridicheskie nauki, kul’turologiya i iskusstvovedenie. Voprosy teorii i praktiki. 2012, no. 9, pt.1, pp. 195–200. (In Russian)
18. Krasavskii N.A. The concept “longing” in Russian linguoculture. Izvestiya Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Pedagogicheskogo Universiteta, 2009, no. 7, pp. 20–23. (In Russian)
19. Dimitrova E.V. Longing. In: Antologiya kontseptov [Anthology of Concepts]. Karasik V.I., Sternin I.A. (Eds.). Vol. 1. Volgograd, Paradigma, 2005, pp. 268–273. (In Russian)
20. Kuznetsova L.E. Love In: Antologiya kontseptov [Anthology of Concepts]. Karasik V.I., Sternin I.A. (Eds.). Vol. 3. Volgograd, Paradigma, 2005, pp. 200–216. (In Russian)
21. Sklyarevskaya G.N. The concept “love” in the Christian sense: A lexicographic description (preliminary notes). In: Yazyk, soznanie, kommunikatsiya: Sb. st. [Language, Consciousness, and Communication: A Collection of Articles]. Moscow, MAKS Press, 2013, no. 46, pp. 104–112. (In Russian)
22. Pen’kovskii A.B. The joy and pleasure in presentation of the Russian language. In: Logicheskii analiz yazyka: Kul’turnye kontsepty [Logical Analysis of Language: Cultural Concepts]. Moscow, Nauka, 1991, pp. 148–155. (In Russian)
23. Bardykova I.V. Pagan and Christian ideas about suffering in Russian culture. Nauchnye Vedomosti, 2007, no. 2, pp. 169–174. (In Russian)
24. Averintsev S.S. Poetika rannevizantiiskoi literatury [Poetics of the Early Byzantine Literature]. Moscow, Coda, 1997. 343 p. (In Russian)
25. Krasavskii N.A. The concept “joy” in Russian linguoculture (based on the dictionary entries and an associative dictionary). Izvestiya Volgogradskogo Gosudarstvennogo Pedagogicheskogo Universiteta, 2010, no. 5, pp. 4–7. (In Russian)
26. Shmugurova K.V. Concepts of longing and joy in the artistic worldview (based on the material of I.A. Bunin, F. Sologub, I.F. Annensky’s lyrics). Cand. Philol. Diss. Novosibirsk, 2011. 216 p. (In Russian)

The content is available under the license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.