Основы интерпретации художественного текста (на материале английского языка). Учебно-методическое пособие

Министерство просвещения Российской Федерации ФГБОУ ВО «Армавирский государственный педагогический университет»

Институт русской и иностранной филологии Кафедра иностранных языков и методики их преподавания

Л.Э.КУЗНЕЦОВА

ОСНОВЫ ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИИ ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОГО ТЕКСТА (на материале английского языка)

Учебно-методическое пособие для студентов вуза, обучающихся по направлениям подготовки 44.03.01 Педагогическое образование и

45.03.01 Лингвистика

АРМАВИР

2020

УДК 81:811.111(075.8)

ББК 81.2 К 89

Кузнецова Л. Э. Основы интерпретации художественного текста (на материале

К89 английского языка) : учебно-методическое пособие / Л. Э. Кузнецова. – Армавир: АГПУ, 2020. – 91 с.

Данное учебно-методическое пособие предназначено для студентов вуза, обучающихся по направлениям подготовки 44.03.01 Педагогическое образование и 45.03.01 Лингвистика.

Издание содержит теоретические положения по основным вопросам курса, аутентичные тексты для анализа, содержание практических занятий, задания для самостоятельной работы, образцы стилистических анализов, а также практические рекомендации, необходимые для самостоятельной работы над изучаемыми темами.

Рецензенты:

кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры иностранных языков и методики их преподавания Малахова С.А.

кандидат филологических наук, доцент кафедры отечественной филологии и журналистики Чернова Л.В.

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СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ

Курс «Основы интерпретации художественного текста» имеет своей целью формирование у обучающихся компетенций в виде знаний, умений и владений навыками в области анализа художественной литературы страны изучаемого языка в опоре на курсы теории языка и межкультурной коммуникации.

Задачи дисциплины:

1.формирование готовности использовать английский язык для получения, оценивания и использования иноязычной информации при решении учебных, научноисследовательских и профессиональных задач;

2.приобщение к культуре, традициям и реалиям стран изучаемого языка в рамках тем, сфер и ситуаций, соответствующих программе курса;

3.формирование умения представлять свою страну, ее культуру в условиях межкультурного общения, основанном на принципе «диалога культур»;

4.повышение общей грамотности студентов и расширение страноведческого и культурного кругозора;

5.воспитание толерантного отношения к межкультурным отличиям, к культурам стран изучаемого языка, межличностным различиям, воспитание бережного отношения к культурному наследию родной страны и стран изучаемого языка.

6.стимулирование интеллектуального развития обучаемых.

В результате освоения дисциплины студент должен знать:

особенности художественного текста и его композиции; основные методы анализа художественного текста;

различные подходы к стилистическому анализу художественного текста.

уметь:

грамотно читать произведение, понимать смысл, переводить отдельные отрывки, высказывать своѐ отношение к прочитанному, критически оценивая текст, устно и письменно выражать свои мысли по поводу прочитанного в форме стилистического анализа;

владеть:

основным лексическим и грамматическим материалом по темам учебной программы; способностью к пополнению собственных знаний в области интерпретации и худо-

жественного перевода текста; способностью совершенствовать умения и навыки интерпретации, лингвопоэтиче-

ского анализа и перевода художественного текста; способностью оценивать эффективность собственного подстрочного перевода.

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LECTURE 1. PLOT AND PLOT STRUCTURE

THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

The impact of a literary work depends on all its elements. Among them plot and plot structure play an important role.

The plot is a series of interlinked events in which the characters of the story participate. The events are arranged in a definite sequence to catch and hold the reader's interest. The writer arranges the events, ordering them as he sees it.

Most stories and novels have plots. But there are some which have no plots. To these belong stories and poems describing nature. It is difficult to trace the plots in the so-called ―novels of ideas‖ and stories presenting the stream of consciousness, since the thoughts of the character are set down as they occur regardless of their logic.

Every plot is a series of meaningful events. They are meaningful in the sense that the writer does not follow all the events in which the characters of his story would participate in real life during the span of time covered by the story. Therefore, each event in the story is always logically related to the message, the theme, the conflict, and is psychologically related to the development of the characters within the story. Sometimes the logical, and sometimes the psychological aspect may be the more obvious.

Any plot involves repetition, but it does not mean mechanical repetition. A plot is comprised of a variety of events, each of which recalls the reader, directly or indirectly, to the central problem. No matter how casual each event might seem to be at first glance, it generally returns the reader to the main problem of the story.

The plot of any story always involves character and conflict. They imply each other. Conflict in fiction is the opposition (or struggle) between forces or characters. Conflicts

are classified into external and internal conflicts.

Different types of external conflicts are usually termed in the following way:

1.Man against man, when the plot is based on the opposition between two or more people, as in The Roads We Take by O'Henry.

2.Man against nature (the sea, the desert, the frozen North or wild beasts). The conflict in The Old Man and the Sea by E.Hemingway, The Hunter by J.Aldridge ( the scientist's effort to discover the secrets of nature involve a conflict between man and nature).

3.Man against society or man against the established order in the society, when the individual fights his social environment openly, or when there is a conflict between the individual and the established order: a conflict with poverty, racial hostility, injustice, exploitation, inequality.

4.The conflict between one set of values against another set of values. These sets of values may be supported by two groups or two worlds in opposition. For example, the conflict in The Fall of Edward Barnard by S. Maugham is between ambition and prosperity, on the one hand, and truth, beauty and goodness, on the other.

Internal conflicts, often termed as "man against himself", take place within one character. The internal conflict is localized in the inner world of the character and is rendered through his thoughts, feelings, intellectual processes. Here the character is torn between opposing features of his personality. For example, the tragedy of Soames Forsyte in The Man of Property is his conflict with himself: the sense of property, on the one hand, and a keen sense of beauty, on the other. The internal conflict within an individual often involves a struggle of his sense of duty against self-interest.

The plot of a story may be based on several conflicts of different types, it may involve both an internal and an external conflict

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Conflicts in fiction are suggested by contradictions in reality. They are affected by the writer's outlook, by his personality and his view of certain types of people, problems and social phenomena. The writer observes reality and the fates, problems, difficulties of his fellow creatures inspire him to write. It is reality that he reflects in his work, but he does it from his own standpoint, as he sees and understands it. Therefore, when evaluating a literary work one should take into account not only the types of human nature and class contradictions described, but also the standpoint they are viewed from.

The place and time of the actions of a story (or novel) form the setting. For the setting the writer selects the relevant details which would suggest the whole scene. In some stories the setting is scarcely noticeable; in others it plays a very important role. The functions of the setting may vary.

1. The setting helps to evoke the necessary atmosphere (or mood), appropriate to the general intention of the story. It may be an atmosphere of gloom and foreboding as in Rain by S. Maugham or a mysterious atmosphere as in The Oval Portrait by E. A. Poe.

2.The setting may reinforce characterization by either paralleling or contrasting the action. Thus in S. Maugham's story Rain the description of the unceasing rain parallels the actions of Mr. Davidson.

3. The setting may be a reflection of the inner state of a character, as in Jane Eyre by Ch. Bronte. The setting reflects remarkably well the feelings that Jane experiences. The function of the setting in King Lear by W. Shakespeare is identical. The raging storm reflects King Lear's emotional state.

4. The setting may place the character in a recognizable realistic environment. A setting, which is realistic and which is rendered vividly, tends to increase the credibility of the whole plot.

5.In fiction the setting, especially domestic interiors, may serve to reveal certain features of the character. "A man's house is an extension of himself. Describe it and you have described him ..." Such settings may be viewed as "metonymic, or metaphoric, expressions of Character". This function of the setting may be illustrated by the role Mr. Bounderby's house plays in Hard Times by Ch. Dickens.

6.When the theme and the main problem involve the conflict between man and nature the setting becomes in effect the chief antagonist whom the hero must overcome, as in The Old Man and the Sea by E. Hemingway.

The setting is generally established at the beginning of the story, in the exposition, which is the first component of plot structure.

In the exposition the writer introduces the theme, the characters and establishes the setting. The exposition, therefore, contains the necessary preliminaries to the events of the plot, casts light on the circumstances influencing the development of characters and supplies some information on either all or some of the following questions: Who? What? Where? When?

The exposition may be compressed into one sentence or extended into several paragraphs. Fairy tales usually begin with an extended exposition that provides the reader with exhaustive information about when and where the events are set, who the characters are and what the story is about. Such is the exposition in The Magic Fish-bone by Ch. Dickens.

If the characters and backgrounds are not special, not much exposition is required. Such is the case in D. Parker's story Arrangement in Black and White. The characters and the setting are not specified. There may even be no exposition at all and the descriptions of the setting may be scattered in the other structural components of the story. The reader has to collect the directly and indirectly expressed information about the characters and the setting, gradually constructing the world of the story himself while he reads on. Such is the case in The Lady's Maid by K. Mansfield.

The second structural component which follows the exposition is complications. Complications generally involve actions, though they might involve thoughts and feelings as

well. As a rule, this structural component consists of several events (or mоments of 6

complications). They become tenser as the plot moves toward the moment of decision – the climax. Such a direct scaling upwards in the moments of complications occurs in The Cop and the Anthem by O'Henry.

The third structural component is the climax. It is the key event, the crucial moment of the story. It is often referred to as the moment of illumination for the whole story, as it is the moment when the relationship among the events becomes clear, when their role in the development of characters is clarified, and when the story is seen to have a structure. In The Cop and the Anthem, for example, the climax is Soapy's arrest.

The denouement is the fourth structural component of the plot. The denouement is the unwinding of the actions; it includes the event, or events, in the story immediately following the climax and bringing the actions to an end.

A story may have no denouement. By leaving it out the author achieves a certain effect – he invites the reader to reflect on all the circumstances that accompanied the character of the story and to imagine the outcome of all the events himself. Such is the case in The Cop and the Anthem.

The usual order in which the components of plot structure occur is as follows: exposition, complications, climax and denouement. Novels may have two more components of plot structure: the prologue and the epilogue (see, for example, Angel Pavement by J.Priestley).

Sometimes the author rearranges the components of plot structure. The story then begins with complications, or even with the denouement. For example, The Apple Tree by J.Galsworthy begins with the denouement.

Therefore, any rearrangement of the components of plot structure is meaningful. It may affect the atmosphere and introduce the necessary mood. It may increase the tension and the reader's suspence, and in this way affect the reader's emotional response to the story.

We may generalize by saying that there' is a variety of plot structure techniques. A story may have

(a)a straight line narrative presentation, when the events are arranged as they occur, in chronological order;

(b)a complex narrative structure, when the events are not arranged in chronological order and when there are flashbacks to past events;

(c)a circular pattern, when the closing event in the story returns the reader to the introductory part;

(d)a frame structure, when there is a story within a story. The two stones contrast or parallel.

It should also be added that the intensity of the impression depends on presentational sequencing, i.e. the order in which the writer presents the information included into the story. Hence presentational sequencing is interlinked with plot structure.

The writer may withhold some information and keep the reader guessing. The reader will then be uncertain of some things or suspect certain facts. A number of questions may arise, the answers to which may either follow rapidly or emerge gradually in the course of the narrative. Most stories contain an enigma, which is an important factor in story-telling. Some stories contain a whole series of enigmas. Mistaken Identity by M.Twain is built round one major enigma: What caused the sudden change in the attitude towards the narrator and his companion? By holding back the fact that the narrator was taken for a general until the very end of the story M.Twain builds suspense which constantly mounts in the course of the story. The withholding of information until the appropriate time is called retardation. Retardation is a widely used literary technique of presentational sequencing. Retardation heightens suspense.

The flashback technique is another device of presentational sequencing. A flashback is a scene of the past inserted into the narrative. For example, the narrative in The Lady's Maid contains flashbacks to Ellen's childhood and youth.

Foreshadowing is a look towards the future, a remark or hint that prepares the reader for what is to follow. This device of presentational sequencing heightens suspence. The title in Mistaken Identity is a case of foreshadowing. It hints at the outcome of the event without

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revealing its cause and in this way intensifies suspence. Presentational sequencing may be traced on different levels. It may involve sequencing of information, as shown above. Besides, it may involve sequencing of literary representational forms, such as narration, description, reasoning, direct speech (monologue, dialogue), interior speech, represented speech, quotations, the author's digressions. It may also involve the sequencing of viewpoints in the story, which form the socalled underlying compositional structure of literary work.

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LECTURE 2. SYSTEM OF IMAGES. MEANS OF CHARACTERIZATION

THEORETICAL PRELIMINARIES

An image in art is a subjective reflection of reality. It is affected by the writer‘s power of imagination. Though every image is inspired by life, the writer reflects reality as he sees it. Moreover, he may create images of scenes which he could have observed (as in historical novels).

An image is, on the one hand, a generalization and is never a complete identity of a person, thing or phenomenon. There is always something left out by the writer, and something that is emphasized or even exaggerated. On the other hand, an image in art is concrete with its individual peculiarities.

Since images in art reflect the writer‘s subjective attitude to them, they are always emotive. Literary art appeals to the reader though all the senses: sight hearing, touch, smell, taste. In the reader‘s mind images call up not only visual pictures and other sense impressions, they also arouse feelings, such as warmth, compassion, affection, delight, or dislike, disgust, resentment.

Our emotional responses are directed by the words with which the author creates his images. This explains why writers are so particular about the choice of words. However, when we read fiction, it is not the words that we actually respond to, it is the images which these words create that arouse the reader‘s response. This does not mean that wording in literary art is irrelevant. Any change of a word affects the reader‘s response, as words may evoke sense impressions.

Compare:

He was a stout man.

(S. Maugham. Red)

The images created by figures of speech in S.Maugham‘s description call up a visual picture of a concrete fat man and evoke in the reader definite feelings, including those of antipathy and even aversion. Whereas ―He was a shout man‖

does not arouse negative feelings.

As Joseph Conrad puts it, a writer creates images by means of the commonplace words that we all use, ―the old, old words, worm thin, defaced by ages of careless usage… My task which I am trying to achieve is by the power of the written word to make you hear, to make you fell – it is before all, to make you see. That – and no more, and it is everything‖. ―Художник не столько сообщает о переживаниях своего героя, сколько создает эти переживания в форме художественной речи‖.

It must be noted that the images of s literary work a system, which comprises a hierarchy of images, beginning with micro-images (formed by a word or a combination of words) and ending with synthetic images (formed by the whole literary work). Between the lowest level (the micro-images) and the highest level (the synthetic images) there are images which may be termed ―extended images‖.

In the story The Pawnbroker’s Shop by M. Spark the scene of Mrs. Cloote‘s examination of the articles brought to her pawnshop affords a vivid illustration of the hierarchy of images. ―The examination would be conducted with utter intensity, seeming to have its sensitive point, its assessing faculty, in her long nose… She would not smell the thing actually, but it would appear to be her nose which calculated and finally judged… A list of object‘s defects would proceed like a ticker tape from the mouth of Mrs. Jan Cloote.‖ The micro-images of the separate peculiarities of Mrs. Cloote constitute an extended image of a feature of her

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personality. Whereas the synthetic image of Mrs. Jan Cloote is comprised of a whole series of micro-images and extended images which the whole story contains.

In literature attention is by far centered on man, human character and human

behaviour. That explains why the character-image (synthetic image) is generally considered to be the main element of a literary work; the images of things and landscape are subordinated to the character-image. Thus, landscape-images are generally introduced to describe the setting, to create a definite mood or atmosphere. Yet even a landscape – image, as well as an animal-image, may become the major character in The Old Man and the Sea by E.Hemingway; or again animal-images are the central characters in The Jungle Book by R.Kipling.

Character-images are both real and unreal. They are real in the sense that they can be visualized, you easily se them act, you hear them talk, you understand and believe them. They are unreal in the sense that they are imaginary. Even if they are drawn from life and embody the most typical features of human nature, even if they are images of historical people, they are not identical with them, and are products of the writer‘s imagination. In The Summing Up S.Maugham writes, ―I have drawn my characters from living persons… But people are all elusive, too shadowy, to be copied, and they are also too... contradictory. The writer doesn‘t copy his originals; he takes what he wants from them, a few traits that have caught his attention.‖

Nevertheless characters in literature often reveal so much of human nature and seem so real, that the readers tend to forget that they are fictions.

In the most stories one character is clearly central and dominates the story from the beginning up to the end. Such a character is generally called the main, central, or major character, or the protagonist. The main character may also be called hero or heroine, if he or she deserves to be called so.

The a n t o g o n i s t is the personage opposing the protagonist or hero. The v i l l a i n is the character with marked negative features.

Sometimes in a literary work the writer will give us two characters with distinctly opposing features, we then say that one character servers as a f o i l to the other. The foil is so different that the important characteristics of the opposite personage are thereby sharply accentuated. Thus a mean person will act as a foil to a kind and generous man. It is through the use of the foil contrast between the characters is seen more clearly. Sherlock Holmes and Dr.

Watson are designed as foils for each other. In J. B. Priesley‘s novel Angel Pavement Mr. and Mrs. Smeeth are also foils, as they are distinctly opposed personalities. Mr.Smeeth‘s constant apprehension and fear of losing his job is contrasted to Mrs. Smeeth‘s jolly nature and thoughtlessness, his worries about the insecurity of his family and his desire to save money for a rainy day are emphasized by the contrast with Mrs. Smeeth‘s extravagance and passion to spend immediately all the money she gets.

When a character express the author‘s viewpoint directly, he is said to be the a u t h o r’ s m o u t h p i e c e . Dr. Watson is considered to be Conan Doyle‘s mouthpiece.

If a character is developed round one or several features, he becomes a type or a caricature. A t y p e is characterized by qualities that are typical of a certain social group or class. A c a r i c a t u r e is a character so exaggerated that he appears ridiculous and distorted, yet recognizable.

M. Twain‘s story Mistaken Identity contains masterfully created caricatures. The conductor‘s and the porter‘s slavish politeness and eagerness to dance attendance on a man whom they took for a general, are exaggerated to the utmost. Their ―bows and a perfect affluence of smiles‖, the way they approached ―oozing politeness from every pore‖, Tom‘s smiling face which was ―thrust in at the crack of the door‖ create a grotesque caricature on servility to men of rank and wealth It was contrasted to vanity, cocksureness and satisfaction at being treated servility, the features round which the narrator‘s character is developed.

Characters may be s i m p l e (f l a t) or c o m p l e x (w e l l-r o u n d e d). Simple characters are constructed round a simple trait. Complex characters undergo change and growth; reveal various side of their personalities. Hamlet is a complex character, as he is brave and

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