Donary: from a permanent Christmas motif to a cross-cutting motif in yuletide stories of N. S. Leskov

The subject of research is the motif of donary, the object of study is a series of “Christmas stories” by N. S. Leskov. The research paper envisages the content, functions, manifestations of the motif of giving gifts in the gospel story of the Nativity, in Christmas cultural traditions. Versions of the motif of donary, its types, gifts and donations are systematized in the yuletide stories of Leskov. The motif of gift-giving accomplishes various artistic functions such as: formation of the subject, characters, typologization. The motif of donation is cross-cutting in the whole of the series of yuletide stories and plays a cycle formative role. A gift-giving motif is seen by Leskov as an important way of depicting social and cultural domains including functional culture and daily life of the characters. The key function of the gift-giving motif is formation of the Christmas contextual content in Leskov's yuletide stories characterized, as it is known, by the representation of common (worldly) situations, absence and/or revealing of mysticism, often by their humorous connotation etc. The gift-giving motif becomes a means of presenting Christmas semantics that enriches Leskov's texts with Christian motifs, images, symbols and concepts.