The epithet “Italian” in Alexander Pushkin's literary, journalistic and epistolary works

There are many research works describing Italy and Italian in Pushkin's oeuvre. The most elaborated aspects of this problem are literature relations and reminiscences and the question of Pushkin's mastery of the Italian language. However, the forming of the whole image of Italy in Pushkin's mind remains a relevant issue today. The objective of the study is the reconstruction of this image based on linguistic materials specifically on metaphrastic expressions of the concept “Italian” in Puskin's heritage. The data of the study are Pushkin's poetry, prose, epistolary works and journalism. The object is the literal expression of the concept “Italian” in Pushkin's texts. The research methodology is an imagological method. It is determined by the objective of study: an image of another country and culture. The notion of concept in Anna Wierzbicka's defenition referred to the semiotic paradigm is adaptable to realise the imagological description. In this article, the concept “Italian” is analysed only in its literal expression because of large data content. It is realised as the usage of epithet “Italian” and its phonetic variants in Pushkin's texts. The notion of concept is used to serve the methodological tasks of imagology and complemented by the hermeneutical approach. The biographical method was also applied (the epithet and its usage is analysed in Pushkin's biographical context). During the study all cases of using the word “Italian” were found and described. The results of the description were generalised according to the objective of the study. The Dictionary of Pushkin's Language served as a background work in the study and allowed making a quantitative calculation of linguistic usage and selection of representative texts. The study was carried out by analysing the significative complex of “Italian” and its compatibility. According to the Dictionary of Pushkin's Language, the word “Italian” is encountered 21 times in his works and letters. To analyse this phenomenon, the realia should be determined that Pushkin combined with the adjective “ital'yanskiy” Italian. The author has found that the adjective describes certain realities of everyday life of the author (in his letters), his characters (poetry, prose) and literary work (critical notes). They are opera, language and some of its elements - lexis, phraseology, some phonetic aspects. As a result of study, the following conclusions are drawn: firstly, the role of Italy in Pushkin's artistic consciousness and his emotional attitude to it were determined; secondly, the evolution of the poet's perception of the Italian topos was shown; thirdly, the basic content of Pushkin's concept of Italy and ”Italian” in three aspects was identified and analysed. The three aspects are: opera and its influence on the poet's state of mind; the role of Italian language in forming the opposition “North-South” in the novel Egyptian Nights; Italian literature compared with Russian.