A literary letter as a stylistic phenomenon (on the material of M.V. Nesterov's letters)

The subject of the present paper is the analysis of the stylistic nature of a private letter as a literary fact. The letter writing is defined as a stable, well-known genre functioning in different spheres of communications, and for all that retaining its invariant features. The features characteristic of literary letters selected by stylistic criteria are figurativeness and aesthetic significance. The present research has been done on the basis of the epistolary heritage of the Russian painter М.V. Nesterov.