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• Artefact Metaphors and Similes in Modern Russian Prose

  Nataliya Nikolina

  Zoya Petrova

  Views:

  220

  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.

• New Trends in the Use of Metaphors and Similes Including Names of Food in Modern Russian Prose

  Natalia Nikolina

  Zoya Petrova

  Views:

  172

  The article discusses metaphors and similes including culinary vocabulary, functioning in modern Russian prose. The purpose of the article is to identify new trends in the use of such figurative constructions in modern prose compared with the previous period in the development of Russian literature. The work outlines the main thematic groups of names of food and drinks used in prosaic texts, and notes changes in their composition and character. New elements in the semantic classes of «vehicles» of metaphors and similes are also revealed. A tendency towards the differentiation and concretization of images of comparison, which is characteristic of modern prose, is noted, and the means of its implementation (specific names and qualifying definitives) are described. The article considers new subjects of comparison and figurative parallels used in modern prose texts.

• Metaphors in Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s Short Story ”The Queen of Spades”

  8 p.

  Angelika Molnár

  Views:

  250

  In this paper it opens up how Lyudmila Ulitskaya in her short story “The Queen of Spades”develops the crisis situation whichher heroes getsinto. So, the problems of the crisis should beanalysed also from a broader perspective, however, we will confine ourselves to only one rather narrow aspect of the analysis of poetic utterance, namely the tropological one.The chosen (mechanical and animalistic) metaphors are connected with the figure of the main heroine and also her revolting daughter.

• Zoomorphic Metaphors and Similes in the Modern Russian Prose

  17 p.

  Zoya Petrova

  Views:

  315

  The article represents the main circle of zoonymous images common in the modern Russian prose, they are classified into thematic groups of the “Animals” class, the most frequent vehicles of metaphors and similes are identified, the circle of tenors is outlined, distributed according to the relative frequency of use in literary texts. By means of comparison with the traditional images of the class in question, presented in the dictionary of metaphors and similes of the previous period of the Russian literature, and with the figurative uses of zoonyms in the Russian linguistic world image based on materials of linguocultural dictionaries, the main directions of evolution of zoomorphic tropes in modern Russian prose are determined. Some aspects of textual functioning of zoomorphic tropes are studied: individual preferences in choosing their groups, their conceptualizing role in the text. The results of the study make it possible to get an idea of ​​one fairly significant fragment of the figurative world image of the modern Russian prose.

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

  11 p.

  Natalia Nikolina

  Zoya Petrova

  Views:

  300

  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.

• The Theory of Metaphors in Contemporary Literary Studies

  17 p.

  Angelika Molnár

  Views:

  183

  This article is designed as a brief overview of the methods of how metaphor is defined in contemporary scholarship. In the discussion of the similarities and differences of the basic Russian and Western poetic, philosophical and logical approaches to metaphors are compared to each other. Besides, Hungarian comprehensive syntheses and reconsiderations of metaphors are also touched upon. Finally, suggestions are made as to which aspects of literary studies and linguistics can be used in the analysis of the system of tropes in literature.

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

  Angelika Molnár

  Views:

  65

  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:

  348

  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.

• Singularity of Novel Discourse in Dostoevsky's The Idiot

  Géza Horváth

  Views:

  87

  The article examines Dostoevsky's novel discourse as a singular unity in the novel The Idiot. This discourse is dominated by the principle of indeterminacy, and the category of subjectivity is closely connected with the novel model of singularity. The aim of the article is to understand the principles of discursive unity organization in the novel on the level of its basic metaphors. These basic metaphors are "point" and "line".