The natural world harmony in V. K. Arsenyev’s works: a linguistic and stylistic analysis of the travel novel "Across the Ussuri Krai" (to the 150th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

K. Arsenyev’s writings have repeatedly become the object of ethnographic and literary studies. However, the linguistic aspect of the writer’s works often remained outside the scope of serious in-depth research. Much attention in the literature concerning V. K. Arsenyev’s writings was directed to the characterisation of the flora and fauna of the taiga. At the same time, the scientific aspect of V. K. Arsenyev’s works was especially emphasized. There exists detailed research of Dersu Uzala’s (a Goldi-guide) vivid image. The paper aims to analyse the linguistic means employed to create the harmonious natural world in V. K. Arsenyev’s travel novel "Across the Ussuri Krai". The study used linguo-stylistic and integrating methods as well as the method of contextual-semantic analysis which takes into account distant connections in the text and reveals the content-semantic load of its components. Additionally, componential analysis of the usual and contextual tropes was employed. The paper describes the devices of depicting the harmonious life of the taiga brotherhood. The comparison between the world of people and the world of nature resulted in the conclusion that civilisation influenced the flora and fauna of the Ussuri Krai destructively. Moreover, the paper argues that the lack of harmony in the people’s world ruins the wild realm of nature.