REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT “HAPPINESS” IN RUSSIAN PRECEDENT TEXTS OF COMIC GENRES

Abstract

The concept of happiness is an essential element of any culture. The purpose of the article is to reveal the conceptual characteristics of this mental unit in the Russian-language worldview. Scientific originality of the work lies in the fact that for the first time Russian language precedent texts of comic genres are used for the reconstruction of the above-mentioned concept. The authors focus on the detection of social processes and beliefs in Russian society that serve as a source of conceptual characteristics. In the course of the linguistic research, the authors have found that the concept “happiness” has the extensive representation in the Russian language precedent texts of comic genres. The concept is represented in four main aspects: attempts to define what a state of happiness is, attitudes towards it, how to achieve it, and the gender aspect. Peculiarity of the concept “happiness” is the existence of antonymic characteristics in the structure of the concept. The authors come to the conclusion that the reason for this phenomenon can be explained by the transformation processes, the concept is undergoing, due to large-scale worldview changes taking place in Russian culture.