Verbal representations of art concept in the literary text through the prism of intermediality

Размещено на http://allbest.ru

Zaporizhzhija National University

Verbal representations of art concept in the literary text through the prism of intermediality

Olena Pieshkova, post-graduate student

of the English philology department

Abstract

Literary text is defined as a complex system comprising various codes in its structure. The article focuses on the study of the specificity of the depiction of the ART concept and its forms within the literary text and its reinterpretation through the prism of the intermedial aspects, which is carried out by the method of intermedial analysis.

Keywords: literary text, code, intermediality, intermedial analysis, ART

"Those words are most pleasant which give us new knowledge. Strange words have no meaning for us; common terms we know already. It is the metaphor which gives us most of this pleasure."

Aristotle

Recently much consideration has been given to the investigation of the literary text [1, 3, 5]. It is explained by the tendency which was noticed by Aristotle - a human is in constant search of something new, but it is not just about a new meaning but a search of hidden cruxes through the usage of well-known language units [2, p. 118]. This issue has evoked interest among scholars and multiple studies have been performed [1, 3, 5]. A literary text serves as an appropriate platform for this artistic and linguistic investigation. A text is a coherent set of statements forming a unity of meaning, and which has a communicative intention. The literary text is the one that employs literary language, a type of language which obeys aesthetic concerns in order to capture the interest of the reader. The author of a literary text seeks the appropriate words to express his ideas with care and beauty while following a certain criterion of style [4]. The aim of the research is to study lingual representations of various types of art in the literary text. The object of the study is literary text which is viewed as a semiotic system comprising multiple codes in its structure [1]. The cognitive-semiotic analysis comprising the method of narrative and discursive analysis is applied in the present research paper.

Literary text was defined as a system which comprises several codes. Roland Barthes employs two terms readerly and writerly to delineate one type of literature from another and to implicitly interrogate ways of reading, like positive or negative habits the modern reader brings into one's experience with the text itself [1]. Texts belonging to this category “readerly text” make no requirement of the reader to "write" or "produce" their own meanings. The reader may passively locate "ready-made" meaning. According to R. Barthes, these sorts of texts are "controlled by the principle of non-contradiction" [2, p.156], that is, they do not disturb the "common sense" of the surrounding culture. Such texts, in general, can be defined as "like a cupboard where meanings are shelved, stacked, [and] safeguarded" [2, p. 200]. On the contrary, there is an opposite category of texts, which is called writerly text, determining the text as the system that aspires to the proper goal of literature and criticism: "... to make the reader no longer a consumer but a producer of the text" [2, p. 4]. Writerly texts and ways of reading constitute, in short, an active rather than passive way of interacting with a culture and its texts. A culture and its texts, according to R. Barthes, should never be accepted in their given forms and traditions.

As opposed to the "readerly texts" as "product," the "writerly text is ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world is traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular system (Ideology, Genus, Criticism) which reduces the plurality of entrances, the opening of networks, the infinity of languages" [2, p. 5]. Thus reading becomes for R. Barthes "not a parasitical act, the reactive complement of writing," but rather a "form of work" [2, p.10]. The difference between two categories of texts lies in its direct involvement in the process of reading: in a writerly text, the reader is active in a creative process and in a readerly text in which the reader is restricted to just reading. R. Barthes comes to the conclusion that an ideal text is the one that is reversible, or open to the greatest variety of independent interpretations and not restrictive in meaning. The modernist and postmodernist writers sought openness for interpretation. Something was initially left simple for understanding, but some deep ideas and meaning were coded. This explains the reason why the texts, belonging to this movement encompass double nature, demanding the reader not only read the literary surface but also plug into the depth of the meaning and apply background knowledge and sense the text. The literary text open to interpretation is composed with the usage of codes. R. Barthes defines several codes that define a network (or a topos) that form a space of meaning that the text runs through. Each code appears as voices that altogether sound in the text, though each of them for a while may dominate the text.

1) Level of denotative code - on this level of denotative coding in a literary text ART and its multiple forms are depicted directly. The reference to the outstanding representatives of art is peculiar to this level of coding. In the novel Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf we can see the direct quotation taken from outstanding literary works, for example, the author cites William Shakespeare: as she read in the book spread open: Fear no more the heat o' the sun / Nor the furious winter's rages [7]. These are the lines taken from the play Cymbeline.

In addition the author intentionally interweaves the names of famous writers and their literary works, occasionally giving detailed description of the plot or characters, but more often the author tends to omit the details in order to make the reader go into the depth of artistic variations: There were Jorrock's Jaunts and Jollities; there were Soapy Sponge and Mrs. Asquith's Memoirs and Big Game Shooting in Nigeria, all spread open [7]. On the level of denotative coding there are particular tendencies of referring to ART: the author may include onyms (sometimes intentionally without giving the additional details because both modernist and postmodernist writers wanted to educate and motivate to investigation with their text), the inclusion of one text in the composition structure of the other text - which is called intertextuality, the usage of results of creative process. visual linguistic intermediality literary text

2) Level of imagery code- imagery dimension of ART in the narrative structure of the literary text is represented through the choice of words, literary devices and figures of speech which occur in the process of comprehension of art and its representations which may possess imagery (metaphorical, metonymic) comprehension. Suddenly Mrs. Coates looked up into the sky. The sound of an aeroplane bored ominously into the ears of the crowd. There it was coming over the trees, letting out white smoke from behind, which curled and twisted, actually writing something! Making letters in the sky! [7] In this text fragment, metaphorical assimilation can be seen. The sky is likened to a sheet of paper (actualizing the metaphor sky is a piece of paper for writing), and the smoke, coming out of the aeroplane represents the ink for writing (applying conceptual metaphor smoke is the ink). This metaphorization can be understood on the language level through the usage of such words as curled and twisted which denote the manner the writing which resembles the human penmanship.

Another example highlights the metonymy which is used to compare a human voice with a musical instrument which possesses unusual characteristics and possibilities: “K... R...” said the nursemaid and Septimus heard her say “Kay Arr” close to his ear, deeply, softly, like a mellow organ, but with a roughness in her voice like a grasshopper's, which rasped his spine deliciously and sent running up into his brain waves sound which, concussing, broke. A marvelous discovery indeed - that the human voice in certain atmospheric conditions <...> can quicken trees into life! [7]. On the language level, this metonymy is revealed through the description or the character of the sound represented through such adjectives as deeply, softly and word combination with a roughness in her voice.

What is more, this metonymy can be decoded by virtue of the implication of sensory code. The language units refer to several sensory systems such as auditory: heard her say, deeply, rasped, concussing, waves sound; tactile: softly; gustatory: deliciously.

Verbal imagery involves an implication of sensory codes. The use of such codes as visual, audial, or tactile make it easier for the reader to feels the text.

3) Level of symbolic code - the images of ART may obtain the role of artistic symbols. The symbol is a sign, possessing several basic characteristics: inexhaustible polysemy, the endless semantic perspective of the image with the unity of meaning, inner form and language marking which transmits actual, subtextual and conceptual information. The semantic structure of a symbol is multilayered and is aimed at the of a creative vision of the reader who interprets the text. If the author aims to create such a text which will be open for interpersonal interaction, on the linguistic level he would select such words that would provoke the reader to seek for the hidden treasure. The concept ART within the literary text can not only be seen through its traditional forms but via the description of regular objects which can be treated as a piece of art. For example, the description of nature can be read as a canvas, equating nature and painting. People were standing and looking up into the sky. As they looked the whole world became perfectly silent, and a flight of gulls crossed the sky, first one gull leading, then another, and in this extraordinary silence and peace, in this pallor, in this purity, bells struck eleven times, the sound fading up there among the gulls [7]. On the verbal level, the description of the scene can be easily felt through the usage of language units, referring to sensory system.

The atmosphere on the canvas can be heard: perfectly silent, extraordinary silence, bells struck eleven times, the sound fading up there; seen looking up into the sky, flight of gulls and cognized and evaluated: in this extraordinary silence and peace, in this pallor, in this purity. On the figurative level, the elements of this atmospheric picture play a certain role. Here the sky may represent the limitless of life, a gull is the image of a person who is not burdened by routine, a person who can lead and is led.

The following text fragment suggests the idea that in the course of life which is very dynamic, people forget to appreciate something that is permanent and enduring. The author allegorically speaks of music as of something that was, is and will always be. An ancient song is a symbol of life, endurance, and continuity. Opposite the Regent's Park Tube station, an old woman sings an ancient song that celebrates life, endurance, and continuity. She is oblivious to everyone around her as she sings, beyond caring what the world thinks. Roots, intertwined and hidden beneath the earth, suggest the deepest parts of people's souls, and this woman's song touches everyone who hears it in some way. The ancient woman at the Regent's Park Tube station suggests that the human condition knows no boundaries of time since she continues to sing the same song for what seems like an eternity. She understands that life is circular, not merely linear, which is the only sort of time that Big Ben tracks. Continuing the reflections of life and death, temporality, and immortality, Virginia Woolf presents it with the lines from William Shakespeare's play. Intertextuality is a method to which the author appeals, which consists in quoting one text in the structure of another, and which is a characteristic feature of the modern and postmodern literary texts. In more wide perspective the term intermediality is relevant as well, as we speak about one piece of art in the frame of art if we consider literary text being the result of a creative process. The symbol of fire as the representation of life and death can be understood from the reevaluation of the piece of art.

Clarissa, the main character in the novel “Mrs. Dalloway”, quotes Shakespeare's plays many times throughout the day. When she shops for flowers at the beginning of the novel, she reads a few lines from a Shakespeare play, Cymbeline, in a book displayed in a shop window. The lines come from a funeral hymn in the play that suggests death should be embraced as a release from the constraints of life. Since Clarissa fears death for much of the novel, these lines suggest that an alternative, hopeful way of addressing the prospect of death exists. The lines from Cymbeline connect to the strong use of nature imagery that appears throughout the novel. The characters that are most connected to nature, such as Clarissa and Septimus, are also the most responsive to poetry and reflect about death and their place in the world most frequently. Both Clarissa and Septimus feel the importance of fire.

The “heat o' the sun” can appear as something wonderful, like passion. Clarissa describes romantic love as “a match burning in a crocus"" [7]. The heat can also consume, however, and Septimus, mentally wounded by the horrors of war, feels that the world will erupt in flames, in a fire that can no longer be contained. Whether wonderful or deadly, the heat of the sun is constant, and something everyone must endure.

The quote suggests that death is embraced as a release from the burden of endurance. The analysis of text fragments permits to come to the conclusion that the concept ART is depicted in the literary text in various forms on all the levels in its structure. On the level of denotative code, ART is represented in its direct meaning as it implies diverse range of human activities in creating visual and auditory or performing artworks, expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. On the levels of symbolic and imagery code, the concept ART is revealed in connotative meaning. Elements of art are depicted in such a manner that a reader can easily decode the importance of the art in the human life, that it penetrates in the depth of humans conscious, creating images and combining mediums. On the verbal level, it is obvious from the means of conceptual metaphorization and the selection of words appealing to reader's sensory systems.

References

1. Barthes R. Image - Music - Text / R. Barthes. Available from: https://rosswolfe.files.word-press.com/2015/04/roland-barthes-image-music-text.pdf (accessed November 4, 2017).

2. Barthes, R. S/Z: An Essay / R. Barthes. Trans. Richard Miller. - New York : Hill and Wang, 1975. - 271 p.

3. Chukantsova V. Intermediality in the system of approaches to the study of literary texts: advantages and disadvantages. Available from: https://lib.her- zen.spb.ru/text/chukacheva 108 140 145.pdf (accessed March 29, 2018)

4. Didactic Encyclopedia What is the meaning of: literary text | concept and definition of: literary text. Available from: https://edukalife.blog-spot.com/2015/09/what-is-meaning-of-literary-text.html (accessed November 4, 2017).

5. Galutskikh I. Tilesnist v hudozhniy prozi an- gliyskogo modernizmu i postmodernizmu (kognitivno-semiotychni stydii)/ I. Galutskikh - Zaporizhzhya: Kruhozir, 2016 - 628 p.

6. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Mrs. Dalloway.” SparkNotes LLC. 2004. Available from: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/dalloway/ (accessed November 4, 2017).

7. Woolf V. Mrs. Dalloway. Online resource Available from: https://ebooks.ade-laide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91 md/ (accessed November 4, 2017).

Размещено на Allbest.ru