title: The Assessment of “Sick Talent” as an Oxymoron
abstract: &lt;p&gt;Based on the material of the epistolary of the 90s of the 19&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century, N.S. Leskov's perception of the oxymoron characteristic "sick talent" in relation to his personality and creativity is comprehended; the volume of semantics of the word "talent" in the writer's mental and linguistic complex is analyzed as one of the means of broadcasting the concept of "Giftedness".&lt;/p&gt;
journal: Language and Text