Conceptual standart of science fiction genre

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Conceptual standart of science fiction genre

The new scientific paradigm with its expressed anthropocentric orientation has intensified its attention to the study of the genre of a text as the form of literary communication and unit of culture. The researches and analysis of various types of interaction and the relationship between different genres, comprehension of the mechanisms of communication and the discovery of patterns of the construction of the language system of certain genres acquires special significance in modern science of language and studying the peculiarity of the society's picture of the world. In modern linguistics it is also considered to be the most relevant problem.

The aim of this article is to study the formation of the conceptual standard of science fiction genre. The basis of the hypothesis is that the genre specificity of science fiction works determines the construction of the image in the world. This is manifested in the typological features of building and depicting a certain unreal image in the text from three main components of any artistic text: time, place, characters.

The idea of a genre as a whole is formed in the minds of the carrier of linguistic culture on the basis of a number of dimensions: sociological, communicative-pragmatic, cognitive, linguistic and others. The cognitive foundations of a language genre are directly related to its cultural understanding. The linguistic genre from a cognitive perspective is regarded as a «segment of the metallinguistic structure of knowledge in that part which is customarily attributed to the communicative-discursive competence of the individual» [5, p. 12].

The cognitive aspect of the study of language genres makes it possible to understand a certain algorithm of speech-immortal activity, which includes knowledge about the construction of typical fragments of the real world, embodied in the speech-creation object (text), and the rules of the functioning of language units within the framework of this object. The ability to correlate various genres with their cognitive analogues and standards allows the reader or recipient to unmistakably identify one or another language genre. S.M. Plotnikova introduced the concept of «conceptual standard of the genre» into the linguistic use [7]. According to the author, the text belongs to a particular language genre only if it conforms to a specific conceptual model. Under the conceptual model of the genre, the author understands «the invariant conceptual system to which any specific text of this genre should belong» [7, p. 266].

G.G. Slishkin offers to study any genre from the point of view of linguocultural conception [8, p. 40]. The author believes that in the discourse of each language genre a certain, inherent only to this genre, the picture of the world (the concept of the text), which includes a certain set of dominant linguistic and cultural concepts is constructed [8, p. 43]. The researcher notes that the text concept sphere «includes actual information, associations, imaginative representations, value institutions, which in the mind of the native speaker are associated with the texts known to him» [8, p. 27].

Under this approach, the genre can be interpreted as a field of realization of a certain range of social values. In the picture of the world of each genre it is possible to separate one or more system-building concepts that express the needs of the culture carrier, for the sake of satisfaction of which this genre is being created. All other concepts that are implemented in the discourse of this genre are the means of concretization of system-based concepts, that is, they serve as auxiliary material for creating a certain scheme of the genre based on the social values of a particular society.

Thus, G.G. Slishkin proposes to distinguish between two complementary ways of conceptual modeling of the genre: 1) as a conceptual sphere; 2) as the purpose of the concept. The author also concludes that when describing the genre in terms of its conceptual model, such features as the degree of conceptual saturation, the ability to conceptualize, the number of system-based concepts are significant[8, p. 50]. Thus, in the genre, the scientist sees the synthesis of various elements that make up its basis and form the uniqueness of the genre, because, undoubtedly, each genre operates with specific features which is not similar to others.

Consequently, in the proposed study under the conceptual standard of the genre constructively designed invariant model of the world, which should go any specific text of the genre, will be understood.

The careful analysis of the sample, which includes 8 English novels and 12 stories of the science fiction genre, allowed us to identify a number of artistic and linguistic techniques by which the authors of science-fiction works immerse the reader into a world of counter-factual space inhabited by the characters with certain consciousness, who have human body or other body shell and act in the system of temporary and spatial coordinates, more or less distant from the time and place of creating the work.

The combination of various works thematically united by belonging to the same genre - science fiction, demonstrates the existence of a single standard genre of constructing counterfactual reality.

The conducted investigation made it possible to conclude that the model has a three-part structure, which includes genre-typological common ways of feeling: 1) place; 2) time; 3) actants / characters of science fiction works [6].

First of all, it is necessary to emphasize the principle of "shift" as the dominant principle in designing and depicting space, time and actants. The shift involves moving away from the real spatial-temporal coordinates from the time of creation of the work (into the future or the past), far from Earth as a planet, to the distance (up or down) from the surface of the earth as the standard location of the actants and communicants themselves. The shift also involves expanding the circle of actants by incorporating characters with paranormal abilities, as well as characters that differ (sometimes very) from people.

It should be noted that the maximum abandonment of standards in the image of a counterfactual actants is expressed in the complete refusal of his bodily embodiment. Out-of-the-way characters are a rare phenomenon, but it takes place in the science fiction world.

The example is the character / actant of the story of F. Braun «Arena». This is a higher mind that does not have a bodily shell and communicates with Bob Caron without sonorous words:

Inside his head he heard the voice, not with his ears. It came from nowhere or everywhere [11, p. 228].

As the voice explains, its existence is mental rather than physical:

My existence is mental and not physical [11, p.,230].

In such a form of being, the race of living beings will be transformed into an unlikely far future:

I am the end of the evolution of a race so old the time cannot be expressed in words. A race focused into a single entity, eternal [11, p.229].

The treatment of such a non-existent entity (a single mental entity) as an actant is justified by the role it plays in the narrative structure of the story. It is this mental essence that places two representatives of warring civilizations (Bob Caron's man and an alien-outsider) into a closed space of the blue planet and judges both civilizations depending on the outcome of the fatal battle. Consequently, the entity is deprived of the body, but endowed with will, reason, ability to communicate with a person, acts as an active participant described in the story of events. On the basis of this, we believe that the essence is an actant, a character of a science fiction work.

A significant divergence from the standards of bodily embodiment of characters is observed in the novel by M.Crichton's «Sphere». Sphere is a material object that lies on the edge of the world of actors and the spatial universe. A huge spherical object, discovered by scientists inside a sunken spacecraft that accidentally flooded from the future, has long been perceived as an unidentified technical structure of unclear destination. However, the development of the plot brings the reader to the conclusion that the sphere is a carrier or, at least, a receptacle of a higher, perhaps alien mind, which gives each human being who has fallen inward, the ability to materialize their dreams and desires.

Even unconscious complexes and fears of a person beyond his will turn into some phantoms or are realized in concrete actions. In this way, the sphere actively participates in the human relationships and in a rather dramatic struggle between the heroes of the novel. In addition, the field acquires a parapsychological contact with the main character Norman, when he gets inside, and leads with him a long and foggy dialogue (font selection of the author of the novel):

He becomes aware of something else here, some other presence.

«Anybody here?» he says.

I am here.

He almost jumps, it is so loud. Or it seems loud. Then he wonders if he has

heard anything at all.

«Didyou speak?»

No

How are we communicating? he wonders.

The way everything communicates with everything else.

«Which way is that?»

Why do you ask if you already know the answer?

But I don't know the answer [12, p. 332].

So, analysing the works of F. Braun «Arena» and M. Krichton «Sphere», we conclude that the ability to communicate, the presence of mental freedom, participation in the plot development make the carrier of these properties an actant of a science-fiction work, even on the condition of its extraterrestrial existence and brings a specific component for the general conceptual standard of the genre of science fiction.

As a result of a shift of at least one of these three components (time, place, actant), the entire combination of all narration begins to function as counter-factual. In this case, the "real" at first glance, place and time of events due to the unreality of the depicting scenes themselves (the arrival of the Martians in London, the underwater expedition, which is in the Pacific Ocean and contacts with the unearthly civilization) are converted into irreal, counter-factional. On the other hand, due to «shifting» chronotopic coordinates away from reality, a realistic plausible hero is placed inside them. The author forces the actant to act on the counter-factual laws of the irreal world (for example, immersion in a dream for 30 years to wake up in the future, or moving to a distant past , unintentionally change the course of human history).

For example, the novel «The Door into Summer» by Heinlein which was published in 1956. The narrative perspective of the novel has shifted for only 25 years in the future: the tie of futurism of events dates back to 1970, then the narrator moves forward for 30 years and the development of events takes place in 2000. Both of these temporary plans were the narration for the future for the author and reader of the 1950s-60s. Today's reader describes events that are currently or not very distant past. In this regard, there is an additional reader interest in evaluating Robert Heinlein's predictive abilities.

The distancing of the narrative time may acquire the galactic scale, which serves as another inalienable feature for the standard of science fiction. For example, in the story of A. Azimov «Take a Match» (1972) to the time of plot events, the Earth has long ceased to be a planet, the only place for the placement of the human race, and turned into a regular historical museum:

There were smoggy areas in the galaxy, as once there were on Earth, when it was the sole home of humanity, rather than the carefully preserved museumpiece it now was [9, p. 24].

The shift in the narrative perspective is a powerful means of perceiving the depicted world. By shifting the time of the narrative into the future, the author of a science-fiction work seems to take a carte blanche on the image of counter-factual reality, which at the same time can be not only a futuristic, but also prehistoric. Thus, the narrative plot of R. Bradbury's «A Sound of Thunder» (1952) is not too far into the future - for 100 years (in 2055), and from there the character falls into the deep past - 60 million years ago, in the era of dinosaurs.

The spatial component of the coordinate grid «time-place-actant» in a science-fiction text plays an extremely important role in creating the image of another science. As already mentioned above, the principle of shift is the dominant principle of constructing counter-factual reality. In this case we are talking about the spatial shift, the removal of the depicted space from the real local parameters in which the author of the work and his readers are located.

First of all, the reference point from which the depicted world is removed is the planet Earth. Described in science fiction, the events often occur far from the Earth, in other galaxies, on other planets. At the same time, the spatial scales tend to be hypertrophic: the distance from the Earth is measured by thousands of light years, the structure of social systems is equal to planetary systems, the boundaries of the depicted world coincide with the human universe.

For example, the hero of the story of M.Leinster «First Contact» goes into open space from his ship. About how far it is from the Earth, it is written as follows:

Tommy swam in nothingness, four thousand light years from home [13, p. 258].

By the will of imagination the authors radically change the rotation of the planets around its axis, for example, the Earth ceases to be rotated and facing the Sun with one side, and the Moon, on the contrary, moving away from the Earth, begins to rotate:

The Earth had come to rest with one face to the sun, as in our own time the moon faces the earth [10, p. 67];

Thus, the analysis of the investigated material allows us to conclude: creating a counterfactual world of science fiction, the authors of the works of this genre violate more or less the standards, laws, according to which the real world, which surrounds people (including readers), functions and is reflected in a general cultural picture of the world of mankind. In this regard, it should be recalled that violations of standards, deviations from the norm are possible only against the background of standards as such. Therefore, when describing the space of the otherworldly, science fiction writers so often and willingly compare it with the space of the Earth.

We can conclude that the conceptual model of the genre is a standard model that covers a wide range of phenomena and features that create text with a distinctive special thematic content, style and compositional structure. The conceptual model of the science fiction text includes three main components: time, place, characters, which in turn are subject to the mandatory procedure of feeling. The dominant principle of ecstasy is the shift that manifests itself in the displacement, the displacement of the spatial-temporal coordinates of the depicted world in the distance from space and time in which the author and his readers live.

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