|
|
THE SCHEME OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS. Unit 3 |
|
||
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
NB! Sum up your observations and draw conclusions. Point out the author's language means which make up the essential properties of his individual style.
The suggested extract represents a 3rd Person Narration (a 1st Person Narration) interlaced (interwoven, intermingled) with a dialogue, character drawings, a description, a satirical portrayal of society, a historical event, the inner monologue of the leading character, with the author's digression where he speculates upon the problem of... The author's digression reveals his vision of life... The writer digresses from the plot of the story to reveal (convey) his attitude to... (his view on...) The narration is done in the 1st (the 3rd) person. The main character is the narrator of his own feelings, thoughts and intentions. The story-teller portrays his characters by means of a convergence of SDs, such as. The portrayal of literary personages is done skillfully (masterfully, with great skill). The description (portray-' narration) may be vivid, convincing, powerful, meaningful. Highly emotional, unemotional, suggestive etc. The 4th part is focused on John Smith. The author focuses (his attention) on the character's inner world. The author depicts the life of... The subject of depiction in the 2nd part is... The passage opens with the atmosphere of growing suspense (excitement, ervousness, fright etc.) The paragraph abounds in ( is abundant in ) slang set-phrases The writer makes an abundant use of The compositional structure of the extract fragment) is based on parallelism. Parallelism (parallel constructions are) is accompanied by anaphora (framing etc.) These paragraphs stand in sharp contrast to each other. The paragraph is built in sharp contrast to the following one. The contrast is reflected (manifested) in the language, both in syntactical and lexical means. The paragraph is in full accord (accordance) with the preceding one as far as its idea goes. The author (story-teller) draws a gloomy (majestic, miserable etc.)
The writer uses ( makes use of, employs, resorts to ) common colloquial vocabulary juridical terminology (law terms) to give the narration (to lend) more authenticity and objectivity to lend the story a humorous ring to make the story sound melodramatic (sentimental etc.) It testifies to the writer's mastery (skill). This detail (fact, expression, device) is suggestive of ... is highly informative. It suggests that... It helps the reader guess (realize, come to the conclusion etc.) It leaves much for the reader's guesswork. The syntactical pattern of the sentence (paragraph) is suggestive (informative, meaningful). The syntactical pattern (structure, design) is peculiar (is broken, is violated...) He resorts to high-flown (elevated) words to convey the inner tragedy of his personage. There is a discrepancy between the bookish, elevated vocabulary and the trivial (banal) situation with ordinary men doing everyday things (or the daily routine of ordinary men). It usually produces a humorous (ironical) effect. It reveals the writer's ironical attitude to... It is used as a means of irony. The writer makes use of various language means to depict (portray, convey, reveal etc.) The author digresses from the thread of narration (the topic of story).To pursue his aim the author employs (resorts to, adheres to, uses). The author converses with the reader as if he has an interlocutor before him. (The reader is involved into the events of the text.) The author lays bare (exposes, unmasks, condemns, touches upon, dwells on, delineates, highlights, stresses, underlines, ridicules, mocks at, accentuates)... The author lays (puts, places) emphasis (stress) on... The writer carries the idea to the mind of the reader through... The SD is the indicator (signal) of the character's emotions (emotional tension, mixed feelings). The SD stresses (underlines, discloses, accentuates, emphasizes, is meant to point out, throws light on, highlights, adds to, contributes to, (lightens, enhances, intensifies, gives an insight into, explains and clarifies, serves to provide the text with additional emphases). The satirical (humorous, ironical) effect is hightened (enhanced, intensified, augmented) by a convergence of SD and EM in the paragraph. The SD contributes (adds) to the same effect (the effect desired by the author, the effect the author strives for, a more colourful and emotional presentation of the scene). The SD adds importance to the indication of the place (time, manner) of action is suggestive (illustrative, expressive) (it indicates where and when the scene is laid). The SD is suggestive (illustrative, expressive, explicit, implicit) of... The SD and EM are linked and interwoven to produce a joint impression (are aimed at achieving the desired effect). The SD wants (needs) interpreting, decoding. It prepares the ground for the next sentence (paragraph). The SD makes explicit what has been implied before (lends an additional expressiveness). It is implicit in nature, makes the utterance arresting, enables the author to convey the feelings and emotions of the character, reveals the character's low (high) social position, indicates the step the character occupies in the social ladder, serves best to specify the author's (character's) attitude to. There is no direct indication of that. It is understood indirectly through (perceived through)... The title (SD) is highly informative (symbolic, emotive, emotionally coloured, emphatic). The SD suggests a definite kind of informational design. It is to the word "..." that prominece must be given. If we analyse the intonational pattern of the sentence we see that to the word "..." is given a strong (heavy) stress. Looking deeper into the arrangement of the utterance we come to the conclusion that... The reader traces the marked partiality of the writer for his personage. In order to impose (impress) on the reader his attitude towards the character the author employs... Leading gradually up to the hidden idea that he is pursuing the writer makes the reader feel... The most convincing proof of the idea is... We'll discuss the implication the following sentence suggests... Hints and suggestive remarks (implications and suggestions) are scattered all over the text. On a more careful observation it becomes obvious that... It is worthwhile going a little deeper in (to) the language texture. The idea is hidden between the lines in order to grasp the author's idea. The word (sentence) is charged (loaded, burdened) with implication (connotation). The SD suggests a touch of authenticity (plausibility) to the narrated events (it makes the reader believe that the narrated events have actually taken place in real life). The episode is presented through the perception of the character (this type of presenting a picture of life as if perceived by a character that creates the so-called effect of immediate presence). The SD serves as a clue to the further development of the action. The plot unfolds (itself) dynamically ('slowly). |
|
Words and word combinations suggested for reproducing dialogues in narrative form.
-
to think that
-
to believe that
-
to wonder why (when, how, where)
-
to understand
-
to point out
-
to admit
-
to persist
-
to doubt
-
to stress
-
to confirm
-
to insist
-
to reassure
-
to suggest
-
to wish
-
to know
-
to reject
-
to assure
-
to expect that
-
to reproach
-
to deny
-
to consider (regard)
-
to suppose that
-
to urge
-
to be certain that
-
to object to
Assignment
-
Translate the word combinations and sentences suggested above and learn them.
-
Make use of these word combinations and sentences when fulfilling the assignments on the sheme of stylistic analysis.
|
Introduction |
||
|
Chapter one. |
"The Da Vinci Code" Seen Through "the Asti Spumante Code" |
|
|
|
§ 1. |
Along and alongside the "servile path" |
|
|
§ 2. |
"Accuracy of detail" and the use of abbreviations |
|
|
§ 3. |
Proper names |
|
|
§ 4. |
Foreign words and phrases |
|
|
§ 5. |
Ecclesiastical phraseology |
|
|
§ 6. |
"Artistic" descriptions |
|
|
§ 7. |
Specialized information |
|
|
§ 8. |
Symbols, codes and anagrams |
|
Chapter two. |
"The Da Vinci Code" Seen Through "The Va Dinci Cod" |
|
|
|
§ 1. |
An undisguised challenge |
|
|
§ 2. |
"Accuracy of detail" and the use of abbreviations |
|
|
§ 3. |
Proper names |
|
|
§ 4. |
Foreign words and phrases |
|
|
§ 5. |
Ecclesiastical phraseology |
|
|
§ 6. |
English words and phraseology misapplied and/or explained |
|
|
§ 7. |
"Artistic" descriptions |
|
|
§ 8. |
Specialized information |
|
|
§ 9. |
Symbols, codes and anagrams |
|
Conclusion |
||
|
List of Literature |
||
|
Introduction |
The study of literary texts has always been one of the main aims of philology. Scholars kept trying to explain the specific effect such texts produce,
1) singling out the linguistic devices the author of the text employs,
2) concentrating on the thematic and structural features of it and discussing the turns of the plot and the possible literary influences the author of the text could have experienced, or
3) taking into account simultanesouly the thematic and stylistic peculiarities of a text in order to understand it in its entirety (that is, working along the lines of linguopoetics [11; 12; 14; 28; 29; 30] -- a branch of philological studies aimed at assessing the role and function of stylistically marked linguistic elements in used in an artistic texts for rendering its imaginative content and for producing aesthetic effect).
In all the three cases just specified comparison as a universal method of any investigation [26; 31] is implicitly or explicitly there. Only when speaking about the plot and the structure of a text the scholar may do without any allusions to the previously created written matter; even stylistic analysis pure and simple defies the "rediscovery" of the devices known since antiquity [13; etc.], while placing the text within the existing literary tradition is simply unthinkable if a scholar does not explicitly compare it with the works constituting the said tradition [39].
When one carries out the thematic and stylistic analysis of a text simultaneously, comparison becomes indispensable for a slightly different reason. True, it is possible to rely merely on the lists of devices suggested by Aristotle and his numerous followers and to describe the content as such, but as in this more delicate kind of analysis one is expected to assess the relative significance of linguistic elements for rendering a certain kind of plot, there always remains a danger of overlooking something and of overestimating something else. Hence the analysis initially conceived of a as means of achieving a better understanding of a text may result in complete subjectivity and would in no way contribute to creating a comprehensive commentary to a text.
In contrast to the situations when scholars discuss the history of ideas the way they are reflected in the content of a text and when they may disregard the genre and the stylistic affinity of the texts under comparison, linguopoetic analysis presupposes a more careful and subtle choice of texts to be confronted [17]. For the confrontation to be at all successful one must make sure that there exists a considerable thematic and stylistic similarity between the texts [15], because otherwise what the investigation would finally bring one to would be no more than a very approximate list of disarranged features found in one text and most conspicuously absent in the other. The proverbial subjectivity of philological papers containing a fair amount of value judgements in this case will obviously be there, and the scholar will make himself an easy target for the critical remarks of those who insist on barring axiology from literary investigations at all costs [19].
To cope with the above-mentioned problems members of the English Department of the Philological Faculty of the Moscow State University have long and successfully been trying to elaborate methods of philological investigations allowing one to carry out the research with the minimal subjectivity and with the optimal results [12; 27; 46; etc.]. Their joint contribution has been described and further amplified in the third part of the doctoral thesis by the author of the present paper [14] where linguopoetic confrontation as a special method of philological research is described. This kind of confrontation is aimed at a better understanding of the aesthetic peculiarities of the confronted texts and should be applied to texts bearing considerable stylistic and thematic affinity to each other. The texts under comparison may be totally independent from each other, though some of them could have been written much earlier than the others (hence the two variants of confrontation -- in diachrony [15] and in synchrony [15; 16]), or one of these texts should definitely be treated as "primary" while other texts used for the comparison fall under the category of "secondary" ones [4; 5; 6; etc.], these latter including translation, adaptation and parody.
When linguopoetic confrontation is based on primary and secondary texts, it is only in the case of translations that we may seriously consider the aesthetic potential of the secondary text [12]. Adaptation and parody are of interest only in so much as they allow one to go deeper into the peculiarities of the primary text, their own aesthetic merits being somewhat dubious, to say the least of it [14]. The text of the parody may be amusing, but still there is a great likelihood that it will look absurd, however talented its author may be, if the reader does not have a preliminary knowledge of the original text. But for all its obvious limitations, this kind of confrontation is quite productive, because it gives one a fairly clear idea of what the artistically significant sides of the primary text are.
In this paper we would like to concentrate on the confrontation of
1) the now very popular novel "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown [33] first published in 2003 by Doubleday Fiction and by May 2006 translated into 44 languages and having more than 60 million copies in print (elsewhere in the paper it is referred to as DVC) and the two parodies of it both published in 2005 --
2) "The Asti Spumante Code" by Toby Clements [34; ASC] and
3) "The Va Dinci Cod" by A.R.R.R.Roberts [42; VDC].
In the title of the work we have deliberately avoided using the term "linguopoetic confrontation", for it would imply the unnecessary debate concerning the aesthetic value of the primary text at least and provoke an even more intricate discussion about the limitations of linguopoetics and it being appropriate to apply the term to the analysis of a text of this kind [12; 14; 18]. If the paper had been devoted to the elucidation of these points, it would have been impossible to ignore the issue, but the aim of the present investigation is different. What we are striving for is to show how confronting parodies with the source text may help the reader to have a better idea of the original, its advantages and drawbacks alike. "The Da Vinci Code" being so incredibly popular, it is only natural for a philologist to try and specify the more significant thematic and stylistic features of the primary text by Dan Brown and to give a tentative explanation of why it was received with such an enthusiasm by the reading public; to achieve this, using the secondary texts mentioned may be of great help. It should be noted specially and emphatically that in a linguistic paper like this considering the thematic properties of a text is not something self-sufficient and that style itself is not treated as something subservient; rather the reverse: style here is understood very broadly, not merely as a sum total of the metasemiotically significant elements of the text, but as a way of rendering a particular kind of content including the alternation and interconnection of narrative types within the text. The thematic side of the texts will be taken into account only in so long as it helps to reveal the linguistic specificity of the narration, and not for its own sake.
In the subsequent parts of the paper we are going to
1) Give the general description of the texts under comparison,
2) Speak about the thematic and stylistic features of the three texts, comparing the primary one with each of the two parodies and then, hopefully,
3) Arrive at certain conclusions concerning the nature of the popularity of Dan Brown's novel.
As both "The Asti Spumante Code" and "The Va Dinci Cod" are detective novels in which action is developed against a certain historical background (real or imaginative) and as both of them reproduce the stylistic features of the primary text, there is absolutely no need for us to go deeper into the history or theory of parody here -- a question that has been most thoroughly studied in a number of philological papers [2; 3; 7; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 37; 38; etc.] -- and to explain the subtle distinction between stylization, periphrasis and parody proper [5; 6]. The authors of both secondary texts do not merely use some features of Dan Brown's style to create an independent artistic text (stylization) or to apply them to the description of reality usually shown with the help of some other linguistic means (periphrasis); the two secondary texts are definitely "about" Dan Brown's novel, they are based on it both stylistically and thematically, hence they may be treated as parodies proper [5; 6] and used within the type of confrontation we have discussed above.
The book, very naturally, is meant for all those interested in matters of style and parody in general, and in Dan Brown's novel and the parodies of it in particular, but apart from this it will hopefully have a more specific application. Students of stylistics are too often provided with manuals giving them ample theoretical information and a relatively meagre practical demonstration of how the theoretical postulates may be used in the analysis of concrete texts. In the present manual we deliberately tried to reduce as far as possible the volume of theory offered and further on to turn entirely to the analysis of protracted literary works. We hope that the present paper will not be completely useless to the students of English who want to master the elements of stylistically and thematically (linguopoetically) oriented research.
-
Примерная схема стилистического анализа
-
Scheme of comprehensive analysis of a short story
-
The theme, the main idea.
-
Plot structure. Arrangement of the components of plot structure.
-
The role of the setting.
-
Plot structure techniques.
-
The main characters, means of their characterization.
-
Narrative method. Types of narration.
-
The tonal system. The author’s attitude.
-
Expressive means and stylistic devices.
-
The title and its implication. The message.
-
Your personal response to the story.
-
Scheme of the analysis of a chapter
-
The title and its implication.
-
The subject matter of the chapter.
-
The setting and the main events.
-
Characters and their relationships.
-
Means of characterization.
-
Narrative types.
-
Expressive means and stylistic devices.
-
The author’s attitude, tone, mood, atmosphere.