The Idea of Transfiguration in Russian Literature of the 20th Century

The article presents the idea of Transfiguration expressed and fixed in the semantic potential of language, sign and symbol as the initial, fundamental idea of Russian literature. The tasks solved in this article were formed under the influence of research in the field of the semantic potential of language, which is revealed to its speakers in specific historical and cultural realities. In particular, the connection between the peculiarities of national consciousness and the lexical meanings of such words that have no direct analogues in other languages (“svet”, “mir”, “pravda”, “volya”), i.e. create very specific meanings that speakers of other languages cannot recognize as such. These meanings form the spiritual foundation of the national character. The analysis of the contextual meanings ofthese words forms the basis of the presented work and leads to the conclusion that they form a semantic unity, including at the level of the idea of the Transfiguration of man and the world, which is central to Russian culture and literature. The analysis of the idea of spiritual transformation of man in Russian literature of the XX century is carried out on the basis of representation of semantic-semantic models of the artistic worlds of works by I. Shmelev, V. Shukshin, A. and B. Strugatsky works, including the concepts of the idea of Transfiguration. The writers lead their characters through different paths to inner transformation, and the transforming components are always personified. In I. Shmelev’s work, the vector of transformation is formed by the concepts “soul – faith – miracle – heart / heart’s look – peace – truth – freedom – light / light / to shine”. In the work of V. Shukshin – “soul – conscience – peace – peacefulness – humility – truth / justice – clarity – light / bright / shine – will / freedom”. In the work of A. and B. Strugatsky – “light / shines / dawn – miracle / miracles – will / will barrier – world / world – hope – truth / half-truth – gift – happiness / happy –soul”. The degree of the hero’s approach to the world, light, truth is different, it is set, among other things, through the quantitative saturation of conceptually significant words in the work and through their correlation with the concepts-antagonists. Thus, an individual vector of movement of the human soul, aspiring to the acquisition of new higher meanings, is formed. At the same time, the unifying component for them is the intense inner work, which is continuously conducted by writers and their characters.