parable

The 17-th century is the Time of trouble and the age of feeble-mindedness flourishing in Russia. Composing the first Russian historical novel M.N. Zagoskin could not help bringing the figure of Christian associate in the narration. The article shows ways of interpretation of some episodes with the «God’s fool» using Scriptural passages.

The article analyzes how an old believer Bishop Mikhail (Semenov), one of the prominent opinion journalists of the 20th century, drew upon S. Ya. Nadson’s poetry. Bishop Mikhail used poem excerpts as quotes, which allowed him to express his own attitude to other literary works, to argue, to highlight his own opinion. The use of Nadson’s allegory of Love has a specific nature of its own. An original means of an individual reception of other authors has been brought to light.

The article identifies and analyzes the elements of the parable inherent in L. E. Ulitskaya’s novel Jacob’s Ladder. It is noted that the parable spirit permeates both individual fragments of the text and the entire novel. The parable is manifested on the levels of content, range of philosophical issues and the style of the text: the language of the work is notable for the simplicity of expressive means.