Semantic, structural and composite features of the riddles from the book “A hundred and one riddle”

The article is concerned with the study of poetic literary riddles of the XVIII century. The poetic literary riddles in focus are analyzed for the first time. They were published by an anonymous author in the book “One hundred and one riddle” in 1790. The artistic features inherent to this enigmatic genre in Russian poetry are described. The author provides detailed characteristics of the methods used to create an enigmatic image. A thematic classification of riddles (cosmogonic, philosophical-symbolic, anthropological, animalistic and ethological) as well as classification of riddles by the type of the original description (attributive, relational and attribute-relational judgments) are provided. The subject-object and subject-address structure of enigmatic texts is considered. The semantic and structural-composition features of riddles indicate that the poet was guided by special pedagogical principles, placing a particular emphasis on the cognitive-heuristic function of the poems in focus.