Towards the temporal experience representation in fiction: axiological aspect

The article concentrates on the verbal presentation of temporal experience in I.S. Shmelev’s story “Kulikovo pole”. The “problem of time” is the key issue of the story. The super-complex task the writer (I.S. Shmelev) is trying to solve - is how the reality of timeless existence is expressed by means of language of fiction. The temporal experience of the main characters is represented through several chronotopical planes - past, present, future, the present moment (here and now) and logically impossible “eternity”. We hold that at the plot level the idea of penetration of the eternal into the present is explicated through “consequences of the miracle” (I.S. Shmelev) which proves the reality of “other” world where the laws of space and time don’t work. We argue that various temporal dimensions are unified by the Cross - found at Kulikovo pole which symbolizes the victory of life and death. We prove that the unified “vertical” context representing the value dimension of temporal experience is based on Biblical allusions and Russian conceptual world-view precedential names.