The article studies the means of objectification of the binary axiological opposition “good — evil” and the perceptual-axiological opposition “light — darkness” in I. A. Bunin’s poetry. These dyads are considered subordinative, declaring the priority of the value of one of their members. The novelty of the article is connected with the representation of mythonyms of different semantic groups as explicants of these dyads. It is revealed that in I. A. Bunin’s poems the representatives of the dyad “light — darkness” are different structural demononyms, mythopersonyms, theonyms, and in the opposition “good — evil” these are demononyms, mythoanthroponyms, mythozonyms, mythoornithonyms, mythopersonyms, theonyms, spellonyms. The ability of mythological names to objectify different members of axiological dyads is determined by their semantics, etymology, activation of the interpreter’s background knowledge in the process of reading a literary text. In the work the author notes the quantitative difference of mythological names repre-senting the right and left members of the axiological dyad “good — evil”; transformation of the perceptual-axiological opposition “light — darkness” into the dyad “fire — darkness”; regular enrichment of axiological dyads with existential-ontological meanings. The author concludes that mythological names, acting as means of expressing the right and left members of the axiological oppositions “good — evil” and “light — darkness”, provide a con-stant dialogue of polar principles in the individual author’s picture of the world.
For citation:
Selemeneva O.A. Explication of the axiological oppositions in I.A. Bunin’s poetic text: (Mythonyms studies), Ivanovo State University Bulletin, Series: Humanities, 2023, iss. 2, pp. 61—69.