The article analyses the semantic symbols due to which the live connection between the man, language and culture is created; with archetypical symbols performing the significant role. The classification of the symbols employed in A. Dovzhenko’s cinema-novel “The Enchanted Desna” is being performed and their function in the fictional discourse has been defined. Words-symbols create a complex and rich system in which different types of relations, that is paradigmatic, syntagmatic and phraseological ones are inherent. The linguistic symbols used in A. Dovzhenko’s work acquire the specific national colouring; demonstrate the high level of the Ukrainian people’s intellectuality as well as the remarkable diversity of the Ukrainian linguistic expressive means. The symbol as a verbal sign, the semantics of which being the result of integration and reinterpretation on the level of associations of its direct, figurative, connotative meanings under the specific influence of national cultural context, is formed as a result of metonymic or metaphoric transformations. The symbol also serves as a means of artistic expression in which the conceptual and artistic energy of the cinema-novel “The Enchanted Desna” is accumulated and the author’s most vivid perceptions of the world are focused.