Semantic opposition "vat"/"chalice" in M. M. Prishvin’s works (to the 150th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

The article considers the semantic opposition "vat"/"chalice", which has a strongly pronounced leitmotif character and is one of the constructive elements in the formation of the author’s meta- and supertext. Drawing on the material of M. M. Prishvin’s artistic, journalistic, documental and diary legacy, I reveal the motif-figurative universals, archetypes, constants which have significant mytho-suggestive potential. The paper aims to present a wide range of semantic connotations and formal and content variations of the "Chalice" and "Vat" concepts in M. M. Prishvin’s writings. Another objective is to establish the systemic relations between these concepts at different levels of text and meaning generation focusing on both syntagmatic and paradigmatic aspects. To achieve this goal, I employed structural-semantic, cognitive-functional, and historical-genetic methods of studying a literary text in the axiological paradigm of mo dern philology. The socio-cultural, religious-philosophical, and historical-literary context is involved in the analysis of the "chalice" and "vat" semantic images (eidos) to compare and contrast them. It actualises the semantic layers that make it possible to reconstruct M. M. Prishvin’s picture of the world and, more broadly, the author’s consciousness. The latter reflects not only the artist’s individual experience of cognising the micro- and macrocosm, but also the spiritual and world-view quest of the Russian intelligentsia that endured a series of terrible ordeals in the 20th century. Russian intellectuals immersed in the "vat" of passions and drank the chalice of suffering and atoning for sins.