2013 Vol. 4 №2

This article considers the temporal constants of the holiday of Christmas in I. S. Shmelev’s novel The Summer of the Lord. The key to understanding the verbal image of a holiday is the lines based on Christmas chants. An analysis of lexical and grammatical means of expressing temporal semantics shows that the past and the eternally present amalgamate in the description of a holiday: in the supra-temporal reality of a holiday, everything abides in the atemporal “now”.

This article analyses the role of the cathedral and the icon in the lives of V. Shukshin’s characters: the author shows the most important features of the Russian national character of the second half of the 20th century, as well as the peculiarities of the axiological system characteristic of a non-clerical, but religious consciousness. The author identifies typological features of the characters according to their attitude to the society and nature. The article shows how the tradition of Russian classical literature with its focus on the spiritual development of a person is followed.

The analysis of the problem of “hereditary sin” in Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov is considered in the light of the discussion on the theory of “hereditary sin” within modern Orthodoxy. The author examines the “threshold situations” faced by the novel’s characters and arrives at a conclusion about the role of the “hereditary sin” problem in Dostoevsky’s literary system.