BLIZZARD AS A MYTHOLOGEM IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE

The image of a blizzard goes beyond the scope of the ordinary landscape in Russian literature. It transcends the characteristic of an artistic space and the background for the plot development. The complex of motifs, established images and compositional systems which accompany the creation of the “blizzard” mythologem were being formed over the last two centuries. The authors of the 19th–21st centuries form the tradition of reflecting the image of “blizzard” putting it in the title of the work and in the center of the image system. We can identify at least seven works with the identical title “Blizzard”: a poem by P. Vyazemsky (1828), a story by A. Pushkin (1830), a short story by V. Sollogub (1849), a short story by L. Tolstoy (1856), a novel by G.I. Chulkov (1917), a story by I.A. Novikov (1918), a novella by V. Sorokin (2010). Each author, choosing the title “Blizzard”, deliberately or unconsciously builds the work into a chain-like series of already embodied variations of the motif, absorbs the literary experience of his predecessors, bases his modification on allusions and reminiscences. The aim of the paper is to prove the status of mythologem for the image of snowstorm in Russian literature, as well as to analyze the variety of embodiment of the image and ways of its interpretation. The number of works analyzed is due to the limitation of the overall scope of the work. The article includes the analysis of several variations of the “blizzard” motif depending on genre, artistic and philosophical trend or historical epoch. Moreover, there is an allusive connection between the literary materials included in the “blizzard” paradigm. Studying the literary materials in chronological sequence, one can distinguish the influence of the predecessor on the follower on the phonological, lexical, and compositional levels.