SEMANTIC AND COGNITIVE ASPECTS OF IMAGERY INTERPRETATION OF HUMAN BODY UNDER THE POWER IN THE ENGLISH POSTMODERNIST FICTION (ON J. FOWLES’S “THE COLLECTOR”)
Journal Title: Записки з романо-германської філології - Year 2014, Vol 1, Issue
Abstract
The research focuses on the semantic and cognitive analyses of the specific ways of conceptualization and cognitive mechanisms accompanying the formation of the image of the BODY UNDER THE POWER in the literary semantics. The material of the research is the text of English postmodernist writer – J. Fowles “The Collector”. The methodological basis is the theory of conceptual metaphor and implies reconstruction of conceptual metaphors in the text. This study focuses on the specificity of language representation of the socialized body, mainly the image of the body under the power in a literary text of postmodern period, the linguistic aspects of which have not been the subject of a special analysis, which reinforces the relevance of the research. The object of the study is the ways of conceptualizing HUMAN BODY UNDER THE POWER in the narrative space of the British postmodernist prose. The subject of the study are fragments of a literary text, which explicitly and implicitly reveal the image of the BODY UNDER THE POWER, the priorities of its reinterpretation. The material of the research is based on literary text "The Collector" by the English representative of postmodernism in literature, John Fowles [22]. The purpose of the study is to identify the specific figurative interpretation of the BODY UNDER THE POWER and the features of the discourse of power through the discourse of embodiment in postmodernist poetics. The choice of the literary text is conditioned by the fact that the novel views emodiment in a specific postmodernist mode as the plane of unfolding social codes, in particular, the body as an object of power finds bright and figurative representation. In the study we employed the method of semantic-cognitive analysis, which involves reconstructing conceptual metaphors in the text. The methodological base of the research is the theory of conceptual metaphor of J. Lakoff and M. Johnson. Thus, the image of the body under the power in novel "The Collector" by J. Fowles is primarily construed through the activation of conceptual metaphor HUMAN BODY UNDER THE POWER IS A BUTTERFLY, which foregrounds the semantics of a helpless, frightened, body devoid of will on the one hand, and the body as a precious object of property on the other hand, which in reality implies a paradoxical depreciation of the body for those who have the power, its loss of anthropological qualities, because nothing human except the body itself interests the rulers, and the realization of the value of body by its owner is associated with the fear of death and the reluctance to leave the world. It determines the specific artistic representation of embodiment in the novel, which condemns blind, destructive and uncontrolled power aimed at mindless and meaningless possessiveness. The power over the body which takes on a distorted, pathological form, figuratively represents such modes of power as dictatorship, totalitarianism, which forced people to feel like "an insect", which nothing can protect.
Authors and Affiliations
I. Galutskikh
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP415547
- DOI -
- Views 84
- Downloads 0
FUNCTIONING OF THE ENGLISH TOURISM TERMINOLOGY IN THE GUIDES TO UKRAINE
The article outlines main aspects of study of English tourism terminology, in particular, functional. General specific features of English guides and peculiarities of tourism terms functioning in them have been reviewed...
VERBALIZATION OF THE CONCEPT HAIR IN THE ENGLISH ARTISTIC PROSE
The given article deals with the investigation of the peculiarities of verbalization of the concept HAIR in English artistic prose of the XIX-XX centuries. Main trends in the concept study in modern linguistics are being...
FROM A FAIRY TALE – TO REALITY: “CASUAL VACANCY” BY J. ROWLING
The article presents a review of the first big novel of the famous author, discussing in detail problems of today’s English life. Harry Potter enjoyed phenomenal success which grew with every new book and every film that...
MODIFICATIONS OF THE BASIC KEY OF LYING UTTERANCES
This article considers modifications of the basic key of lying utterances: politeness, humour, irony, figuration, and fantasy. Ways of exploiting utterances with the modified basic key in order to lead the addressee into...
AESTHETIC FUNCTIONALISM AS A PRINCIPLE OF LITERARY TRANSLATION
The article deals with the specifics of aesthetic function manifestations in literary translation as seen in linguistic and cultural paradigms of translation studies. Creative nature of translation was exposed as that of...