Religious lexicon in modern Russian children’s literature (based on Y. Voznesenskaya’s novel “Yulianna, or the Kidnapping Game”)

Abstract

   When human society reached a certain historical stage, one cultural phenomenon appeared - religion. The influence of religion on various aspects of social life and activities is undeniable, in particular – its influence on art and literature: we can say that religion determined their aesthetic principles and thematic directions. Despite the fact that in many countries religious institutions are secularized, it cannot be said that religious topics are not reflected in art and literature. In this regard, in our opinion, it is relevant to trace the influence of religion on children’s literature, not only in terms of its ideological and imaginative component, but also in the linguistic aspect, namely, the use of religious names in the texts of works for children. Currently, the key trends in the spread of religious names in Russian children’s literature are hardly studied; respectively, the goal of our study is to fill in this gap in the study of the functioning of religious names in modern Russian. The article gives a definition of the term “religious vocabulary”, delineating its lexical and semantic field, and analyzes religious names found in the works of modern Russian children’s literature. The article presents a classification and determines the activity of religious lexemes in the novel “Yulianna, or the Kidnapping Game” by Y. Voznesenskaya.