Role of the epigraph in representation of the author's conceptual world picture

The article considers the epigraph as a revealing item of the deep structure of the text, which contributes to the comprehension of the epigraph in a new context. In the theory of intertextuality, epigraphs as independent elements of the structure of a literary text are considered as a separate category of text decoding, which has an allusive nature. The intertextuality of the epigraph is associated with such properties as reframing and reinterpretation. Reframing is changing the frame structure and placing the epigraph in an alternate frame. Such a change of frames naturally leads to reinterpretation, i.e. re-interpretation of the epigraph in the context of the recipient's text.