MODERN CHRISTMAS TALE // Bulletin of BSU. Philology. - 2019. №1. . - С. 54-62.

MODERN CHRISTMAS TALE

UDK: 821.161.1

The article analyzes “The Christmas Miracle” collection of stories by different authors, published in 2016. The author considers the signs of a Christmas story suggested by Niko- lay Leskov in Russian literature and their manifestation in a number of works of the col- lection. The article highlights the idea of sympathy or compassion, reviews the correlation with events confined to Christmas, reveals the motive of miraculous healing of the soul or the salvation of a child which completes the story with a happy ending. It also proposes a classification of stories into those in which the characters are adults, and the change of their souls occurs as a result of an accident, and those in which the hero is a child suffering from the fault of adults and finding salvation. In general, the features of the Christmas sto- ry can be found in modern works, but high artistic merit are not always present.

genre of Christmas story; Orthodox moral code of compassion; motive of miracle; motive of prodigal son; happy ending; edification.