Search

Search Results

• The System of Comparative Tropes in «Aviator», a Novel by E. Vodolazkin

  11 p.

  Natalia Nikolina

  Zoya Petrova

  Views:

  278

  The article discusses the functioning of metaphors and similes in the text of E. Vodolazkin’s novel «Aviator». The tropes are divided into two groups: conceptualizing tropes and non-plot-forming ones. The main semantic types of comparative tropes are noted as proceeding from «tenors» and «vehicles» of metaphors and similes. It is shown that the tropes interact with each other and form a system in the text.
  Emphasis is put on the dynamism of metaphors and similes in the novel: they regularly reflect the hero’s changing perceptions. Comparative tropes play an important role in the unfolding of the key motifs of the novel and are associated with its various temporal and narrative plans.

• Metaphoricity in the novel Pelagia and Black Monk by Boris Akunin

  Angelika Molnár

  Views:

  18

  The paper discusses the tropological game in Boris Akunin's detective novel Pelagia and the Black Monk. The author focuses on the transformation of the main images in this contemporary work. Various periphrases and similes are then studied, as well as the destruction and renewal of redundant tropes, and the generation of new metaphors, particularly those related to color, nature, and zoomorphic images (e.g. the color black, rays). The figurative order of the text of the novel offers such potential correlations that expand the plan of interpretation of the novel in a new and unexpected direction, testifying to a truly postmodern rewriting of lingual, literal, and poetical clichés. A key role in this process is played also by details (see Z. Hajnády).

• Types and Functions of Comparative Tropes in Contemporary Prose Texts (as represented in L. Ulitskaya’s Short Story ”The Queen of Spades”)

  5 p.

  Angelika Molnár

  Natalia Nikolina

  Views:

  317

  This article studies the types and functions of comparative tropes in Lyudmila Ulickaya’s short story ”The Queen of Spades”, a reference to Alexander Pushkin’s famous masterpiece. This question is connected with the main heroine’s figure constructed on the basis of the system of tropes. In the analysis suggested by the authors, special attention is paid to the animalistic, vegetative and theatrical metaphors, parallels and similes. In the conclusion the difference between traditional and individual tropes in the woman writer’s literary work is discussed.

• The artistic interpretation of biographical facts in L. Petrusevskaya's Ninth Volume

  Zsuzsanna Kalafatics

  Views:

  16

  The paper deals with the interpenetrability of the boundaries between artistic prose and autobiography and documentary. By analyzing Petrushevskaya's Ninth Volume, the paper examines how the rhetorical tropes of fiction operate in a text that is essentially autobiographical in nature, mixing different genres, and how archetypal, psychological and literary patterns are projected onto the biographical material. The cyclical arrangement of texts belonging to different periods and the blending of different discourses create the figure of a special autobiographical hero reflecting on the work.

• Artefact Metaphors and Similes in Modern Russian Prose

  Nataliya Nikolina

  Zoya Petrova

  Views:

  190

  The article deals with comparative constructions (metaphors and similes) that include images of artefacts. The analysis involves the works of modern Russian prose writers such as A. Ilichevsky, E. Vodolazkin, O. Slavnikova, M. Shishkin, A. Volos, D. Bykov, D. Rubina, D. Glukhovsky, A. Makushinsky, S. Sokolov, V. Pelevin and others. It is concluded that modern Russian prose is characterized by the intensive use of artefact images as part of comparative constructions. The most common are metaphors and similes including the names of household items, fabrics, as well as machines, mechanisms, and their parts. These figurative means characterize, first of all, a person, parts of the human body, appearance, and people’s actions. Artefact comparative tropes giving a figurative description of various objects of nature are also widespread. Both traditional and new tropes including the names of artefacts in modern prose are discussed, in particular, the use of computer terms and names of new realities that have appeared relatively recently. A feature of modern prose texts is the regular use by writers of concretization and detailed transformation of images of comparison involving definitions of different types. Artefact metaphors and similes often act as key signs of the text and play a conceptualizing role in it.