Abstract
The article deals with artistic time and space in Mukhtar Auezov's story "The Orphan" (translated by V. Dubintseva and N. Gordeeva). In the story under study, the chronotope serves as an important means of creating psychologism. The system of spatial and temporal relations in the story is organized through a series of antitheses: "one's own – someone else's", "inhabited – uninhabited", "steppe – aul", "real – fantastic", "day – night", "light – darkness". Features of the artistic space of the story are rooted in folklore, but are paradoxically rethought. The transformation of artistic space is connected with the movement of time: from light to darkness, from the real to the fantastic. The system of landscapes and artistic details in the story is built in such a way that it works to depict orphanhood as a central psychological characteristic of the protagonist. The story is an example of how extremely concise means can achieve a strong and deep emotional effect.