Verbalization of insularity in literary journalism (based on Anton Chekhov’s “Sakhalin Island”)

The study aims to describe the structure and content of the conceptual category of insularity, verbalized in a literary journalism text. The author studies the category of insularity as a complex social, psychological, cultural, and linguistic category and describes its specifics. The research investigates the structural components of insularity verbalized in “Sakhalin Island” by Anton Chekhov. Scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that it is the first approach to the study of insularity as a complex mental phenomenon manifested in literary journalism. The study looked into the notional, figurative, and axiological components of insularity. There were identified cognitive features (‘surroundedness’, ‘ambivalence’, ‘coldness’, etc.) and described conceptual metaphors (‘island is a human’, ‘island is a prison’, ‘island is a myth’, etc.). The findings enabled to present the structure of insularity and establish the value of this category in the artistic picture of the work.