The image of a star in the poetics of the novel I. S. Shmeleva “Summer of the Lord”

The article examines the peculiarity of the functioning of the image of a star in the chapters “Christmas,” placed in the first and second parts of the novel “The Summer of the Lord” by I. S. Shmelev. The relevance of the work is determined by the unrelenting interest of modern literary criticism in the study of the writer's creativity. The features of the artistic embodiment of the image of a star in the poetics of the novel “The Summer of the Lord” have not yet become the subject of a separate study. Star imagery in the textual space of the chapters of the novel echoes the motifs of dynamics, movement, light, sacredness, deification, spiritualization and beauty of the world created by the Lord. The motif of the “playing creature”, which sounds in the work, symbolizes the joy of the whole world experienced on the night of the birth of the Infant Christ. The motif of dynamic stars is emphasized by their anthropomorphic properties. Of particular importance in the chapters “Christmas” is the use by the author of the color and sound characteristics of the image of a star, associated with the theme of the deification of the world and the motif of beauty. The artistic device of antithesis is the basis of the chronotopic structure of the Christmas chapters of the novel “The Summer of the Lord.” The time preceding the main Christmas event is contrasted with the night of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The image of the star here performs an important symbolic function, separating the ordinary and sacred time. The appearance of the first star in the sky delimits ordinary reality from the deified, spiritualized existence of a person, when everyday life is replaced by being. The method of spiritual realism in the Christmas chapters of the novel “The Summer of the Lord” is based on the image of the gradually emerging spiritual principle in the earthly life of the characters. The star in the work of I. S. Shmelev symbolically reflects the idea of Christ the Star, which goes back to biblical imagery. The artistic concept of the author, presented in the work, is aimed at designating the sacredness of the Christmas holiday and the image of the star, correlated with the inevitability of their saving repetition. The accentuation of the motif of the spirituality of the star expresses the author's understanding of the Christocentricity of the world. The artistic concept of the author, presented in the work, is aimed at designating the sacredness of the Christmas holiday and the image of the star, correlated with the inevitability of their saving repetition. The accentuation of the motif of the spirituality of the star expresses the author's understanding of the Christocentricity of the world.