This paper focuses on different theories proposed by German literary scholars currently addressing the concept of "memory", and reconsider the role of literature as a medium for keeping and transferring cultural legacy through space and time. It is discovered that literature-as-a-medium and memories are interconnected. It is also demonstrated how reading evokes spe-cific memories and forms a certain image of the past.
The analysis of R. L. Stevenson's story "Markheim" shows an essential role of Christmas motifs in the semantic space of the work. There are various forms of expressing this motif in the key moments of the plot. The value space of the main character is connected to the Christian values inherent in Christ-mas motifs, and the story line develops along the rules of a Christmas story.
The article highlights the role of music in the life and creative mind of Yaroslav Ivashkevich. The study involves previously unknown material of a book of the writer's memoirs published in 2010, and his essays that shed light on some episodes of his childhood and adolescence, his perception and evalua¬tion of the works of classical composers, as well as representatives of the contemporary musical culture.
The article considers artistic strategies of creating personal worlds of fic-tional chacracters in the works of Tatyana Tolstaya. These strategies include lingvopoetics of communication failures (“Peters”), “cinematic” lingvopoetics (“The River Okkervil”) lingvopoetics of insight (“Night”), lingvopoetics of deixis and the similarity (the novel “Light worlds”). The article analyses the way these strategies affect the formation of conceptual textual meanings.