Semantic potential of L. Andreev’s story “Kusaka”

INTRODUCTION. The research will be useful not only to linguists and literary scholars, but also to literature teachers, since the works of L. Andreev are included in the school curriculum. The purpose of the work is to identify the semantic potential of L. Andreev’s story “Kusaka”. The relevance of the study is due to the need to study L. Andreev’s literary texts for modern philological science from the point of view of identifying the ability of units of different levels that are interconnected to act as markers of the mythical-poetic code.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The material of this work is the text of L. Andreev’s story “Kusaka”, which is a system of multi-level units, the analysis of which contributes to a deeper penetration into the author’s artistic intention. The work uses both general scientific and special linguistic methods: the method of linguistic observation and description, etymological, word-formation, onomastic, contextual, stylistic and linguocultural types of analysis.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. It is shown that the literary text  of L. Andreev is characterized by the interrelation of units of different levels, revealing the mythopoetic basis of the story, represented by the oppositions friend–foe, ligh–darkness, sound–silence. The dominant elements of the story are the lexemes house, yard, garden, sun, darkness. The diminutives used by the author when describing the girl and the dog create the image of a toy that is interesting and desirable in the present, but may be abandoned in the future due to loss of interest in it. Proper names (zoonyms Zhuchka, Kusaka, Kusachka and anthroponyms Lelya, Ilyusha, Dogaevs) and their absence have a special meaning.CONCLUSION. As in most of  L. Andreev’s works, the story “Kusaka”, demonstrating the struggle of light with darkness, presents the path of gaining (Kusaka) and losing the soul (Lyolya and other people who for some reason are called kind). All this happens against the background of natural cyclicality – winter– spring–summer–autumn–... correlate with the natural processes of birth-development-old agedeath. Coming after the departure of the people who abandoned Kusaka, who again turned into just a nameless dog, the hopeless dark night becomes a symbol of lost hope, lost happiness.