Кичаева Ума Александровна

Стилистический анализ художественного произведения

методическое пособие для студентов 3-5 курсов

Махачкала 2016

Данное учебное пособие предназначено для студентов старших курсов факультета иностранных языков для использования на занятиях по аналитическому чтению при анализе художественного произведения.

Разнообразие текстов художественных произведений предполагает разнообразные творческие подходы к анализу художественного текста.

Данная методическая разработка содержит лексический минимум и примерную схему стилистического анализа художественного произведения.

Пособие составлено в полном соответствии с требованиями Государственных образовательных стандартов по направлению «Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация».

Содержание

Стр.

Введение

Vocabulary

An approximate scheme for the analysis of a text

Phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices

Введение

Знакомство с лучшими образцами английской поэзии и прозы, умение вдумчиво читать и понимать художественную литературу в единстве содержания и формы способствуют всестороннему целостному развитию личности, становлению духовного мира человека, созданию условий для формирования у него внутренней потребности в непрерывном совершенствовании, в реализации своих творческих возможностей.

От правильного понимания текста зависит практическая деятельность человека. Интерпретация текста выдвигает проблему комплексного анализа, позволяет установить единство формы и содержания текста, взаимоотношение текста и внетекстовой реальности и, наконец, общекоммуникативной роли текста.

Предлагаемое пособие – книга для будущего учителя. Исходя из того, что интерпретировать текст на иностранном языке гораздо труднее, чем на родном, в первом разделе нашего пособия мы уделяем большое внимание усвоению учащимися лексики, необходимой для интерпретации текста на английском языке.

Во втором разделе дана подробная схема анализа художественного произведения, с помощью которой студент с легкостью сможет ориентироваться при работе над текстом. Данная схема представляет собой один из возможных вариантов, который поможет развить, расширить и углубить понимание текста на английском языке.

Vocabulary

An approximate scheme for the analysis of a text

1. A few words about the author.

2. Comment on the title of the text

3. Give the summary (the gist) of the story.

4. Discuss the general tone (mood) of the text.

5. Who is the story told by?

6. Speak of the Theme of the text.

7. Dwell on the idea of the text (it could be done at the end of the whole analysis).

8. The structure of the text:

   1. Divide the text into logically complete parts;

   2. Entitle each part (episode)

9. The composition of the text:

1. The plot of the story:

1. 1. exposition (introduction, starting point)

   2. development (story, an account of events)

   3. climax (the culminating point)

   4. anticlimax (solution, denouement)

2. Speak of the main forms of story representation:

1) narration

2) monologue

3) dialogue

4) description

5) interior (inner) monologue

11. Point out the author’s method of characterization (character drawing):

    1. direct characterization

    2. indirect characterization

12. Stylistic analysis:

1) Comment on the functional styles (F.S.) and expressional means (E.M.) employed by the author to describe the personages.

2) Enlarge on the stylistic effects of the F.S. and E.M. used in the text.

13. Summarize your observations.

Some comments on the approximate scheme for the analysis of a text

Let us decipher the items of the above given scheme.

1. A few words about the author

This information should be prepared by the students. It includes: the main dates, the main stages of the literary career of the author, the most interesting books written by the author, the literary trend he belongs to, etc.

2. Comment on the title of the text

The title of a story (of an extract from a text) may sometimes depict only an episode (e.g. “A cup of Tea”) and it certainly doesn’t need any special comment or interpretation. But sometimes the titles represent some metaphors (“Wild Flowers”) or they may contain some stylistic devices (SD) such as pun in the title (“The Importance of Being Earnest”). All these cases need special attention and possible interpretation.

3. Summary (gist) of the text

It might be done either orally or in writing. Bare facts should be presented without either the author’s or the speaker’s interpretation of the facts. Present tense is preferable. It should be very compact and laconic presenting the logical sequence of the plot.

4. The general tone (mood) of the text

Due to the author’s choice of words (mostly adverbial modifiers, attributes) the reader never fails to perceive the mood of the text. Very often descriptions of the surroundings, weather, and nature may be of great use since they very often serve as a background for the forthcoming actions. The choice of words in different descriptions usually either coincides or contradicts the mood of the character. Define the prevailing mood (tone, slant) of the extract. It may be lyrical, dramatic, tragic, optimistic / pessimistic, melodramatic, sentimental, unemotional, pathetic, dry and matter-of-fact, gloomy, bitter, sarcastic, cheerful, etc. It entirely depends upon the author’s presentation.

5. Who is the narrator?

The narration may be done:

1. in the first person (when the narrator is the author’s own protagonist).

2. the narration may be done in the third person (when the author focuses on some other character or characters.

3. The narrator may not be presented at all, be entirely anonymous.

5. The theme of a text

The theme of a literary work may be understood to be an interaction of human characters under certain circumstances (some social or psychological conflict – war and peace, race discrimination, etc.). E.g. The basic theme of “The Forsyte Saga” may be defined as the life of the English middle class at the end of and after the Victorian epoch. The theme of a literary work can be easily understood from the plot of the work.

5. The idea of a literary work

The idea of a literary work is the underlying thought and the emotional attitude disclosed to the reader by the whole poetic structure of a literary work.

5. The structure of a text

In a literary work events are usually made up of episodes, episodes in their turn, of smaller action details. Usually every event represents some conflict. The clearer the student sees each episode the deeper will be his understanding of both the theme and the idea of the text. The titles given to each episode will reveal it at once. If possible choose the key-sentence (the topic sentence) in each part that reveals its essence.

5. The composition of a text

Plot is a sequence of events in which the characters are involved, the theme and the idea are revealed. The plot consists of:

1. exposition

2. story

3. climax

4. anticlimax

In the exposition some introductory details to the action are given, such as the time, the place of the action.

Story is that part of the plot which represents the beginning of the collision and the collision itself.

Climax is the highest point of the action.

Anticlimax (dénouement) is the event or events that bring the action to the end.

If a literary work is represented without an obvious culmination (climax) and doesn’t contain all the above mentioned elements it is called an open plot structure.

And if a literary work has all the above mentioned elements it is said to have a closed plot structure.

There are known 2 types of short stories:

1. a plot (action) short story

As a rule it has a closed structure; the plot is built upon one collision. The action develops and explodes dramatically only at the end. O. Henry’s novels reveal this pattern very well.

2. a psychological (character) short story

It usually shows the drama of a character’s inner world. The structure in such a story is open. The action is less dynamic. Many of E. Hemingway’s stories are such a type.

E.g. “Cat in the Rain”.

10. Ways of story representation

Narration is representation of the events in their development. E.g. “A Cup of Tea” by K. Mansfield.

“One winter afternoon she had been buying something in a little antique shop in Curson Street. It was a little box. The shopman had been keeping it for her. He had shown it o nobody as yet, etc.”

Description is a presentation of the atmosphere, the scenery and the like.

“Rain was falling, and with the rain it seemed the dark came too, spinning down like ashes. There was a cold bitter taste in the air and the newlighted lamps looked sad. Sad were the lights in the houses opposite. Dimly they burned as if regretting something.”

Dialogue is the speech of two or more characters addressed to each other.

Dramatic monologue

The narration or a character speaks alone but there are those he addresses himself to.

Interior (inner) monologue

The narrator or some character speaks to himself. E.g. “She went to her writing room and sat down at her desk. Pretty! Absolutely lovely! Bowled over! Her heart beat like a heavy bell. Pretty! Lovely!” (K. Mansfield, “A Cup of Tea”)

It usually allows the author to penetrate deeply into psychology of the character and to record his state of mind at a definite moment of an action or time.

11. Character drawing

The characters are usually presented as individual human beings in a literary work.

There are various methods of characterization in a literary work.

a) direct characterization- when the author defines the character for the reader by describing or explaining it, thus offering his own interpretation of each person.

E.g. “Rosemary Fell was not exactly beautiful. No, you couldn’t have called her beautiful. Pretty? Well, if you took her to pieces… She was young, brilliant, extremely modern, exquisitely well dressed…” (K. Mansfield, “A Cup of Tea”)

b) indirect characterization is through the action and conversation. The author leaves it to the reader to judge about the personages by what they do and say.

In the story “A Cup of Tea” Rosemary Fell is characterized not only directly, but also through her thoughts, her speech and her actions.

12. Stylistic analysis

Give a detailed analysis of each logically complete part.
Follow the formula-matter form. It implies that firstly you should dwell upon the content of the part and secondly comment upon the language means (Expressional Means and Stylistic Devices) employed by the author to achieve desired effect, to render his thoughts and feelings

13. Summarize your observations.

Sum up your own observations and draw conclusions. Point out the author's language means which make up the essential properties of his individual style.

PHONETIC EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

ONOMATOPOEIA is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds produced in nature, by things, by people and by animals.

E.g.: ding-dong, buzz, bang, cuckoo, roar, ping-pong, etc.

ALLITERATION is the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonants, in close succession, often in the initial position.

E.g.: "Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before." (E. A. Poe)

RHYME is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words. In verse rhyming words are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.

E.g.: "I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers." (internal rhyme) (Shelly)

RHYTHM is a flow, movement, procedure, etc., characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different element or features.

E.g.: "The high-sloping roof, of a fine sooty pink was almost Danish, and two 'ducky ' little windows looked out of it, giving an impression that every tall servant lived up there" (J. Galsworthy)

LEXICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

BATHOS means bringing together unrelated elements as they denoted things equal in rank or belonging to one class, as if they were of the same stylistic aspect. By being forcibly linked together, the elements acquire a slight modification of meaning.

E.g.: "They grieved for those who perished with the cutter And also for the biscuit-casks and butter." (Byron)

METAPHOR means transference of some quality from one object to another. In other words, it describes one thing in terms of another, creating an implicit comparison.

E.g.: "In a caverni under is fettered the thunder, It struggles and howls at fits? (Shelly)

PERSONIFICATION is a description of an object or an idea as if it were a human being.

E.g.: The long arm of the law will catch him in the end.

METONYMY is the term used when the name of an attribute or object is substituted for the object itself. It is based on some kind of association connecting two concepts which are represented by the dictionary and contextual meanings.

E.g.: the Stage = the theatrical profession; the Crown = the King or Queen; a hand = a worker; etc.

Metonуmу is a transfer of the name of one object to another with which it is in some way connected.

E.g.: The hall applauded.

IRONY is a figure of speech by means of which a word or words express the direct opposite of what their primary dictionary meanings denote.
E.g.: It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one pocket.

Irony is the clash of two opposite meanings within the same context, which is sustained in oral speech by intonation. Bitter or politically aimed irony is called SARCASM.

Е. g.: Stoney smiled the sweet smile of an alligator.

ZEUGMA is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to two adjacent words in the context, the semantic relations being, on the one hand, literal and, on the other, transferred.

E.g.:" Whether the Nymph Shall stain her Honour or her new Brocade Or lose her Heart or necklace at a Ball." (Pope)

Zeugma - the context allows to realize two meanings of the same polysemantic word without the repetition of the word itself.

E.g.: Mr. Stiggins ... took his hat and his leave.

PUN is another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of a word or phrase, more independent than zeugma.

E.g.: What is the difference between a schoolmaster and an engine-driver? One trains the mind and the other minds the train.

Pun is play on words.

E.g.: "Did you hit a woman with a child?" - "No, Sir, I hit her with a brick."

EPITHET is usually an attributive word or phrase expressing some quality of a person, thing or phenomenon. The epithet always expresses the author's individual attitude towards what he describes, his personal appraisal of it, and is a powerful means in his hands of conveying his emotions to the reader and in this way securing the desired effect.

E.g.: wild wind, loud ocean, heart-burning smile, slavish knees, etc.

Epithet is a word or a group of words giving an expressive characterization of the subject described.

E.g.: fine open-faced boy; generous and soft in heart; wavy flaxen hair.

REVERSED EPITHET is composed of two nouns linked in an of-phrase. The subjective, evaluating, emotional element is embodied not in the noun attribute but in the noun structurally described.

E.g.: "...a dog of a fellow" (Dickens); "a devil of a job" (Maugham); "A little Flying Dutchman of a cab" (Galsworthy)

OXYMORON is a combination of two words (mostly an adjective and a noun or an adverb with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense.

E.g.: delicious poison, low skyscraper, pleasantly ugly, sweet sorrow, proud humility, 'She was a damned nice woman', etc.

ANTONOMASIA is the interplay between the logical and nominal meanings of a word.

E.g.: "I suspect that the Noes and Don't Knows would far outnumber the Yesses" (The Spectator)

SIMILE is an expressed imaginative comparison based on the likeness of two objects or ideas belonging to different classes (not to be confused with comparison weighing two objects belonging to one class). Similes have formal words in their structure such as like, as, such as, as if, seem.

E.g.: "I saw the jury return, moving like underwater swimmers..."

Simile is a comparison of two things which are quite different, but which have one important quality in common. The purpose of the simile is to highlight this quality.

E.g.: Andrew's face looked as if it were made of a rotten apple.

PERIPHRASIS (CIRCUMLOCUTION) is the use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. In other words, it is a round-about or indirect way to name a familiar object or phenomenon.

E.g.: a gentleman of the long robe (a lawyer), the fair sex (women), a play of swords (a battle), etc.

EUPHEISM is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant word or expression by a conventionally more accepted one.

E.g.: to pass away/to join the majority (to die), a four-letter word (an obscenity), etc.

HYPERBOLE is a deliberate overstatement or exaggeration of a feature essential (unlike periphrasis) to the object or phenomenon.

E.g.: a thousand pardons, scared to death, 'I'd give the world to see him', 'I would give the whole world to know', etc.

CLICHE' is an expression that has become hackneyed and trite.

E.g.: rosy dreams of youth, to grow by leaps and bounds, the patter of rain, to withstand the test of time, etc.

ALLUSION is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary, mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or writing.

E.g.: "'Pie in the sky' for Railmen" means nothing but promises (a line from the well-known workers' song: "You'll get pie in the sky when you die").

SYNTACTICAL EXPRESSIVE MEANS AND STYLISTIC DEVICES

REPRESENTED SPEECH renders the character's thoughts which were not uttered aloud. It is a purely literary phenomenon never appearing in oral speech.

E.g.: He looked at the distant green wall. It would be a long walk in this rain, and a muddy one ... . Anyway, what would they find? Lots of trees.

PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION is a device in which the necessary condition is identical, or similar, syntactical structure in two or more sentences or parts of a sentence in close succession.

E.g.: "There were,..., real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and plates of the same to hold the cakes and toast in ". (Dickens)

Parallel constructions (or parallelism) present identical structure of two or more successive clauses or sentences.

E.g.: Passage after passage did he explore; room after room did he peep into.

CHIASMUS (REVERSED PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION) is based on the repetition of a syntactical pattern, but it has a cross order of words and phrases.

E.g.: "Down dropped the breeze, The sails dropped down." (Coleridge) "His jokes were sermons, and his sermons jokes". (Byron)

Chiasmus is a pattern of two steps where the second repeats the structure of the first in a reversed manner.

E.g.: Mr. Boffin looked full at the man, and the man looked full at Mr. Boffin.

RHETORICAL QUESTION is a statement in the form of a question which needs no answer.

E.g.: Why do we need refreshment, my friends? Why can we not fly? Is it because we are calculated to walk?

ELLIPTICAL SENTENCE is a sentence where one of the main members is omitted.

E.g.: "Very windy, isn't it?" - "Very." - "But it's not raining." - "Not yet." - "Better than yesterday."

REPETITION is an expressive means of language used when the speaker is under the stress or strong emotion.

E.g.: "I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such case as that." (Dickens)

Repetition is observed when some parts of the sentence or sentences are repeated. It is employed as a means of emphasis.

E.g.: A smile would come into Mr. Pickwick's face; the smile extended into a laugh; the laugh into a roar, and the roar became general.

ANAPHORA is when the repeated word (or phrase) comes at the beginning of two or more consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases.

EPIPHORA is when the repeated unit is placed at the end of consecutive sentences, clauses or phrases.

ANADIPLOSIS is structured so that the last word or phrase of one part of one part of an utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together.

FRAMING is an arrangement of repetition in which the initial parts of a syntactical unit, in most cases of a paragraph, are repeated at the end of it.

ENUMERATION is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena, actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which are forced to display some kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem.

E.g.: "Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his sole friend and his sole mourner." (Dickens)

SUSPENSE is arranging the matter of a communication in such a way that the less important, subordinate parts are amassed at the beginning, the main idea being withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the reader's attention is held and his interest is kept up.

E.g.: "Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. Was obliging enough to read and explain to me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw." (Charles Lamb)

CLIMAX (GRADATION) is an arrangement of sentences (or homogeneous parts of one sentence) which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance.

E.g.: "Little by little, bit by bit, and day by day, and year by year the baron got the worst of some disputed question." (Dickens)

ANTICLIMAX is an arrangement of ideas in ascending order of significance,or they may be poetical or elevated, but the final one, which the reader expects to be the culminating one, as in climax, is trifling or farcical. There is a sudden drop from the lofty or serious to the ridiculous.

E.g.: "This war-like speech, received with many a cheer, Had filled them with desire of flame, and beer." (Byron)

ANTITHESIS is based on relative opposition which arises out of the context through the expansion of objectively contrasting pairs.

E.g.: "A saint abroad, and a devil at home." (Bunyan) "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." (Milton)

Antithesis is a structure consisting of two steps, the lexical meanings of which are opposite to each other.

E.g.: In marriage the upkeep of a woman is often the downfall of a man.

ASYNDETON is a connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any formal sign, the connective being deliberately omitted.

E.g.: "Soames turned away; he had an utter disinclination for talk, like one standing before an open grave, watching a coffin slowly lowered." (Galsworthy)

POLYSYNDETON is the connection of sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part.

E.g.: "The heaviest rain, and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect." (Dickens)

ELLIPSIS imitates the common features of colloquial language, where the situation predetermines not the omission of certain members of the sentence, but their absence.

E.g.: "Nothing so difficult as the beginning." (Byron)

INVERSION is broken word order.

E.g.: Into a singularly restricted and indifferent environment Ida Zobel was born.

BREAK-IN-THE-NARRATIVE (APOSIOPESIS) is a break in the narrative used for some stylistic effect.

E.g.: "You just come home or I'll..."

LITOTES is a peculiar use of negative constructions aimed at establishing a positive feature in a person or thing.

E.g.: "He was not without taste ..." "It troubled him not a little ... "

Список использованной литературы:

1. Арнольд И.В. «Стилистика современного английского языка»

2. М.: Высшая.школа, 1991

3. Гальперин И.Р. Stylistics.М.: Высшая школа, 1971

4. Кухаренко В.А. «Практикум по стилистике английского языка»

5. Скребнев Ю.М. «Основы стилистики». М..: ОО Издательство АСТ. 2000