The own and the alien in V. P. Astafyev’s "Notches" ("Zatesi") (to the 100th anniversary of the birth)

Abstract

The article explores the semantic fields own and alien in V. P. Astafyev s "Notches". Since it took over forty years to write the book (it includes memories of a more or less distant past), and time as such often becomes the object of the author s attention, the own and alien in the article are directly related to the nature of the depicted time. Within the framework of linguo-stylistic text analysis, componential analysis, structural fragmentary description, and comparative stylistic analysis are used. The methods help to demonstrate the complexity of the studied semantic fields, the heterogeneity of their constituent theme lines, changes in the connotative meanings of the same elements depending on the context and the time of writing. Studying prose miniatures by V. P. Astafyev enables one to conclude that the own is the harmonious beginning of the world (in nature, in society, in the human soul), of which less and less is left. Conversely, the alien, the terrible reality of existence, is chaos, when a person loses the serene light of their soul.