Pushkin and his texts in the mirror of metaphors and similes of modern Russian prose (to the 225th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

The article examines comparative literary tropes, including the precedent name Pushkin, the names of the poet s characters, and quotations from his works. The material for the study is modern Russian prose texts mainly obtained from the Russian National Corpus. The paper aims to identify the types and functions of the mentioned comparative tropes. We used structural-semantic, comparative, and corpus methods in the process of analysing the linguistic material. The article shows that modern Russian prose regularly employs both the precedent name Pushkin (and the adjective Pushkinian / Rus Pushkinsky derived from it) and the names of Pushkin s characters, some realia depicted in the poet s texts, as well as quotations from his works. It is noted that the considered comparison tropes consistently perform the intertextual function and the function of figurative description of the characters and depicted realia and situations. The study shows that turning to Pushkin s images in modern Russian prose enhances the vividness of tropes, extends, enriches, and renews them. Nevertheless, several metaphors and similes, including the precedent names of Pushkin s characters, are characterised by image pejoration and are associated with ironic expressiveness.