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RUSSIAN LINGUISTIC BULLETIN 3 (3) 2015
Ковальчук Лидия Петровна
Челябинский государственный университет
Статья подготовлена при поддержке гранта РГНФ № 5-04-00455 "Аналогово-когнитивные процессы в лингвокреативной
деятельности личности "
СОПОСТАВИТЕЛЬНОЕ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЕ БЛЕНДОВ "ЖЕНЩИНА-ЛЯГУШКА" И "ЖЕНЩИНА-ЖАБА" В РУССКИХ И АНГЛИЙСКИХ НАРОДНЫХ СКАЗКАХ
Аннотация
Метафорическое восприятие действительности можно по праву назвать одним из самых древних способов познания мира. Сопоставление различных явлений и феноменов, как правило, приводит к образованию новых терминов и концептов. Подобный процесс происходит и в сказочном дискурсе. Народные сказки представляют собой способ познания действительности путём наложения особенностей животного мира на образ жизни общества. Расшифровка метафорического контекста с помощью теории концептуальной интеграции Ж. Фоконье и М. Тернера показывает национальные культурные ценности, сокрытые в английских и русских народных сказках. Цель исследования - определить соотношение фантазии, реальности и культурных ценностей в русских и английских народных сказках, описав процесс концептуальной интеграции в блендах "женщина-лягушка" и "женщина-жаба". Сопоставительное исследование антропоморфных и зооморфных исходных ментальных пространств показывает, что в народных сказках по-прежнему сокрыты социальные и культурные формы жизни, а так же традиции и обычаи, которые существовали много лет назад. За свою многовековую историю они утратили своё значения и стали восприниматься метафорически.
Ключевые слова: концептуальная интеграция, блендинг, ментальные пространства, народные сказки.
Kovalchuk Lidia Petrovna
Chelyabinsk State University
COMPARATIVE RESEARCH OF BLENDS FROG-WOMAN AND TOAD-WOMAN IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH FOLKTALES
Abstract
The metaphorical perception of reality can be rightfully called one of the most ancient ways of comprehending the world. The juxtaposition of several phenomena inevitably leads to the formation of new terms and concepts. The same process can be found in the fairytale discourse. National folktales represent the way of interpreting reality by means of juxtaposing peculiarities of the animal world with the life of the society. The decryption of the metaphoric context with the help of the conceptual integration theory by G. Fauconnier and M. Turner reveals national cultural values concealed in Russian and English folktales. The aim of the research is to illustrate the correlation between fantasy, reality and cultural values in Russian and English folktales by describing the process of yielding two blends frog-woman and toad-woman correspondingly. For this analysis the structures of the input spaces woman, frog and toad are introduced. The comparative study of the integration process between the anthropomorphic and zoomorphic input spaces shows that in national folktales we can still find social and cultural forms of life, as well as rituals and customs that existed in ancient times. But for many centuries they have been metaphorically modified and lost their real essence.
Keywords: blending, conceptual integration, folktales, mental spaces.
1. The essence of folktales
All of us are quite aware of the most common plots of national folktales. We have known them since our childhood. But we don’t usually think seriously about their sense. Despite the seeming simplicity of folktales, they can be examined as an encoded source of information about the historic background of a certain nation.
The origin of folktales goes back to the archaic epoch. Many scholars, like Claude Levi-Strauss (Леви-Строс 2001), Eleasar Meletinskiy (Мелетинский 1995), Olga Freidenberg (Фрейденберг 1997) considered myths, in a close connection with rituals, ceremonies and rites of initiation, to be the origin of folktales. Therefore, national folktales passing from generation to generation have preserved fetishistic, totemistic and animistic features together with magic beliefs, practiced in earlier days.
Folktales, in this or that way, illustrate a primitive way of thinking. A great Russian and Ukrainian philologist of the 19th century Alexander Potebnya (Потебня 1989: 264) pointed out that the internal life of a primitive man is characterized by the development of fantasy, and a special inclination to personification. Olga Freidenberg (Фрейденберг 1997: 109) denotes that not only the language of the folktale is metaphoric but also its images. A rhythm and a word, an action, a thing, a character - everything we are used to in literature - are various forms of the conceptualization of reality; their structure is as metaphoric as any other figurative system. Similar ideas can be found in works of many other scholars who deal with folktale studies. They all suggest that the basis of the folktale was formed by a figurative comprehension of reality that surrounded our ancestors. Thus, the decryption of the folktale metaphoric context can lead to the revelation of ancient customs.
2. Blending
Metaphor studies cover different aspects of this phenomenon. There are various approaches to the interpretation of metaphors: traditional (Aristotle), semantic (Ivor Armstrong Richards, Max Black) and cognitive (George Lakoff, Mark Johnson). A very unusual understanding of the metaphor is presented in the theory of conceptual integration by Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner.
In the book Mappings in Thought and Language G. Fauconnier remarks,
The most surprising aspect of the organization of language and thought is the fundamental unity of the cognitive operations that serve to construct the simple meanings of everyday life, the commonsense reasoning of our daily existence, the more elaborate discussions and arguments in which we engage, and the superficially far more complex theories and artistic and literary productions that entire cultures develop over the course of time (1999: 189).
He points out various kinds of “mappings between cognitive domains that are set up when we think and when we talk” (1999: 8): pragmatic function mappings, for example metonymy and synecdoche, schema mappings, which refer to grammatical constructions, and projection mappings, as in the case with metaphors. (1999: 9-11)
As for our research, we are interested in a very important cognitive process which, as G. Fauconnier himself says, “depends crucially on cognitive mappings between mental spaces” (1999: 149), and which, additionally, deals with cognitive metaphors. It is blending.
The theory of blending is based on two Input mental spaces that, with the help of the cross-space mapping, yield a third space, the blend. The blend partially inherits features of the input spaces and possesses an emergent structure of its own. One more essential component of this process is the so-called generic space. It reflects some common structure projected from the inputs. The emergent structure of the blend appears as a result of three interrelated processes. They are composition, completion and elaboration. The projections from the inputs in their correlation produce a new structure that is not shared by them separately. This composite structure on the basis of background frames, cognitive and cultural models turns into a larger, self-contained structure in the blend, and can later be elaborated and function on its own.
Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner showed this process schematically as the interplay of circles, representing mental spaces, and dashed lines, reflecting the connection of mental space elements (See figure 1):
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Figure 1. A full four-space blend
Mark Turner describes the process of blending as something indispensable:
Blending is not something special or costly. Blending operates almost entirely below the horizon of consciousness. We usually never detect the process of blending and typically do not recognize its products as blends. Very rarely, the scientists can drag a small part of blending onstage, where we can actually see it. But the mind is not made for looking into the mind, and as a result, we see blending only infrequently, and poorly. (2014: 18)
This is actually what we can observe in national folktales. Application of the theory of blending to Russian and English female folktale images is an attempt to understand the process of their creation. Of course, only a small part of this analysis can be dragged onstage, but this is one of the ways to understand how the human mind works.
3. Input space woman
The notion of woman exists in every language and is characterized by strongly marked national and cultural characteristics. Its interpretation is based upon stereotypes which have appeared due to biological and social functions carried by women. It is an input space that serves for yielding various blends both in everyday speech and in folklore.
The study of etymological and encyclopedic material has revealed some features commonly associated with women in Russian and English traditions. Thus, in the English dictionary woman is defined as “1) an adult female person; 2) a man’s wife or partner” (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 2001: 1646-1647). In any Russian dictionary “женщина” is a person contrary to a man (Большой толковый словарь русского языка 1998: 303).
According to the etymology, the Russian word женщина comes from the Common Slavic root zen-, denoting a female person of a child-bearing age, and goes back to the Indo-European root gen- with the meaning generation or giving a life. The English wordwoman, from Old English wifmann, meant a female person.
Further comparative analysis of historical and cultural facts has shown that interpretation of the notion woman is more or less identical in both cultures. As a rule, the woman is associated with beauty, wisdom, domesticity, hospitality, maternity, caring, magic, or witchcraft, and trickiness. Of course, these characteristics are very general and may be disputed. Nevertheless, all these features can be used for building the input space Woman which serves as a basis for creating other mental spaces, or blends.
Figure 2. The structure of the input space woman
The enumeration of main characteristics in figure 2 is not built according to lexical or grammatical rules. These elements represent the so called associative line. The reason of such irrationality is human mind. In our consciousness thoughts are not produced as an uninterrupted logical chain, they are rather sudden and subdued. They are usually imposed on each other. Conceptual integration process represents a flow of thoughts, which for many years of evolution has become automatic and indispensable.
4. The formation of the Russian blend frog-woman
In the infancy of manhood animals were an entire part of human life. They were worshiped; they were sacrificed; and they were idolized. Thus, in Slavic culture frogs were considered to be the reincarnation of the female soul (Гура 1997: 381). They were also associated with wisdom, gimmick and magic forces. The last belief appeared due to their biological habits: because of their thin skin frogs sleep in the daytime and keep awake at night. So, frogs were equated to evil spirits. They were even used in magic rituals.
In general, a frog can be characterized as an amphibian capable of living in water and on land, leading nocturnal way of life. Sex
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differentiation doesn’t work here because the nomination “frog” is used both for a male and female unit. Therefore, the second input
space can be presented in the same way as the first one (See figure 3).
Figure 3. The structure of the input space frog
The two input spaces woman and frog have some features in common. These features are based on the associative characteristics. In the Russian culture women and frogs are
assigned such traits as wisdom, trickiness and magic. These three similar characteristics can be projected from the input spaces into a generic space:
Figure 4. The structure of the generic space
After composing two input spaces, it is time to address Russian folktales and see how they interact there.
5. The yielding of the blend frogwoman in Russian folktales
The mental connection between the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic input spaces can be traced in different variations of the national folktale The Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog (Tsarevna Lyagushka) and also Vasilisa the Wise. Actually, there are more than 5 versions of this tale, but the general plot is almost the same.
The tsar wants to have his three sons marry. He tells them to shoot arrows and find their brides where the arrows fall. The two eldest brothers’ arrows land in the houses of the daughters of an aristocratic and a wealthy merchant. The youngest prince's arrow is picked up by a frog. Then the tsar decides to test his sons’ chosen brides. The king assigns them various tasks, such as spinning cloth and baking bread. Ivan Tsarevich can’t cope with these tasks without frog’s help. In every task she far outdoes the other brides using magic. The other brides-to-be attempt to follow her in everything, but fail. The frog is a bewitched princess. She has to spend 3 years in a frog's skin for disobeying her father. During the last task she sheds her skin for a while and the tsarevich burns it. As punishment, he has to undergo different trials, meet up with Baba Yaga and Koschei to rescue his bride.
In the Russian fairytale the image of the Tsarevna Frog is very controversial. First of all, it can be illustrated by the changing appearances: “Иван-царевич лёг спать, а лягушка прыгнула на крыльцо, сбросила с себя лягушечью кожу и обернулась Василисой Премудрой, такой красавицей, что и в сказке не расскажешь (Afanasjev 1985: 266) [When Ivan Tsarevich went to sleep, the frog jumped out on to the verandah, threw off its skin and turned into the wise Princess Vassilisa, a maiden so beautiful that you can hardly describe her].
This example illustrates the cross-space mapping between two input spaces. A human, female person, contrary to a man, with human speech who lives on land is opposed to an amphibian capable of living both in water and on land. Lexical means also prove it. For example, froggy habits are made visible with the help of
onomatopoeia: “Ква-ква-ква! О чём Иван-богатырь, ты так запечалился!” (Afanasjev 1985: 265) [Croak-croak! What troubles you, Ivan!]. The heroine’s beauty is reproduced with the traditional hyperbolic fabulous expressions: «такой красавицей, что и в сказке не расскажешь»; «такая красавица, что ни вздумать, нивзгадать, только в сказке сказать» [A maiden so beautiful that you can hardly describe her; she was so beautiful that the guests sat and stared].
The image of Tsarevna Frog is also controversial due to moral values. On one hand, she is portrayed as a skilful, domestic woman who takes care of Ivan Tsarevich and helps him. On the other hand, she is constantly using various tricks for her own benefit: «Лягушка смекнула это, взяла замесила квашню, скатала, печь сверху выдолбила, да прямо туда квашню и опрокинула» (Afanasjev 1985: 261) [The frog, being wise, realized their scheme. After kneading the dough it made a hole in the top of the brick oven and poured the dough through the hole].
Domesticity and caring are features typical of the input space Woman, while trickiness is a common feature for both spaces, as we have already pointed it out. Another similar element is magic. To illustrate it, the following example can be used: «Лягушка тотчасподхватила Ивана — царевича и пошла танцевать; уж она плясала — плясала, вертелась — вертелась — всем на диво! Махнула правой рукой — стали леса и воды, махнула левой — стали летать разные птицы» (Afanasjev 1985: 262) [The wise Vassilisa took Prince Ivan’s hand and they danced together. And she danced so marvelously, so beautifully, that all the guests were amazed. Then she waved her left sleeve, and suddenly a lake was formed in the hall; she waved her right sleeve, and white swan floated on the lake].
A negative perception of the wise Vassilisa is connected with her relation to Baba Yaga and Koschei, the Deathless. In most versions of the tale she is their daughter. It means that she is closely related to evil spirits (this element can be projected from the input space frog). More than that, in search for Vasilisa, Ivan Tsarevich
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goes to the 30th kingdom that in Russian folklore is traditionally associated with the other world.
Most of the elements given above belong to the input spaces. But there are also contextual elements appearing from the tale itself. The most surprising part of the plot is that a marriage between a man and a frog doesn’t surprise the heroes and is considered as an accepted fact. This highlights the totemic side of the fairytale. The context of this tale can be compared with the rite of initiation spread in many ancient cultures, where a boy had to overcome different trials to prove that he is strong enough to be a man and to take a wife.
This plot also arouses interest from a sociological point of view. The Princess Frog is opposed to aristocratic and wealthy merchants’ daughters. She herself belongs to lower orders. After marrying the tsarevich/prince, she changes her social status to a higher one:
«Пустил стрелу старший брат — упала она на боярский двор, прямо против девичья терема; пустил средний брат — полетела стрела к купцу на двор и остановилась у красного крыльца, а на том крыльце стояла душа-девица, дочь купеческая; пустил младший брат — попала стрела в грязное болото, и подхватила её лягушка-квакушка» (Afanasjev 1985: 260). [The eldest son’s arrow fell into a nobleman’s courtyard, where it was picked up by his daughter. The second son’s arrow fell into a merchant’s courtyard, and it was picked up by his daughter. But the arrow shot by the youngest son, Prince Ivan, rose so high and flew so far that he didn’t know where to look for it. So he started
to walk, and at last he came to a marsh. In the marsh he saw a frog with his arrow in its mouth].
Thus, the blend acquires another connotation “the change of the social status”.
As for the physiological motive that is also present here, the yielded blend frog-woman symbolizes a move into adulthood. The fact that the frog sheds her skin shows the transformation of a girl into a beautiful woman.
Therefore, in various versions of the famous Russian tale The Frog Princess a cross-space mapping between two input spaces frogand woman can be easily traced. The new mental space, or the blend, has partially acquired elements of the input space woman (a human, female person contrary to a man, capable of speech, living on land and traditionally associated with caring, beauty, wisdom, domesticity, trickiness and magic) and the elements of the input space frog (an amphibian, living both in water and on land, in ancient Russian culture associated with wisdom, trickiness, evil spirits and magic). The generic space is formed with features shared by both counterparts: wisdom, trickiness and magic. The main heroine in the tale symbolizes the change of social status and a move into adulthood. All theses elements, having a concealed contextual meaning, also form part of the blend. Schematically, the approximate process is shown in figure 5.
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6. The yielding of the blend toadwoman in English folktales
In national English fairytales female features are also blended with an amphibian. Though not with the frog, but with the toad.
A Swiss psychologist and scholar Marie-Louise von Franz in her book The Interpretation of Fairy Tales wrote that in European civilization the toad has always been associated with the Earth Mother, especially in her function of helping at childbirth:
She was looked on, and is even now regarded, as being a representation of the uterus. In Catholic countries after a leg or a hand or some other part has been cured by a saint, a wax image is made of the injured part and suspended as an ex voto (a token of a fulfillment of one's vowel) at the church where healing was requested. Now if a woman has a disease of the uterus or some trouble connected with childbirth, she will not make a wax image of her uterus but will suspend a wax toad in the church, for the toad represents the uterus. (Franz 1996: 73)
Probably, this tradition is connected with the employment of toads into English folktales, for example Dragon Castle and The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh. Unlike the Russian blend, this one has a negative connotation, arising from zoological views of the XVI century.
Actually, toads have long been treated as mysterious and evil creatures. For many centuries people have been afraid of them and had scorn for them. From the biological point of view, all toads are actually frogs. They don’t have great physical distinctions. But toads can be dangerous. Toads have poison glands. They squeeze poison on their skin when they are under threat. Mostly it brings harm to animals and rarely to people, but this fact has been exaggerated in folktales, and these amphibians have been associated with witchcraft for many centuries. Another special feature of toads is also their nocturnal habits, which also encouraged the belief of them being treated as a demonic spirit of evil.
On the whole, this English counterpart doesn’t differ much from the Russian one. It also refers to amphibians and has biological features typical of this class: nocturnal, capable of living both in water and on land. According to folk beliefs, it has a connection with evil spirits and is used in magic rituals. The differences between the input spaces frog and toad are in associative features (the first one includes wisdom and trickiness) and biological ones (toads are noxious animals). As in the case with the mental space frog, the mental space toad doesn’t have sex differentiation in its nomination (See figure 6).
Figure 6. The structure of the input space toad
Toads live in two environments (land and water). This stipulates a thought of them as very controversial creatures. Such inconsistency is also observed in folktale heroines. On one hand they could be “a highborn lady who was beautiful, quick-witted and skilled at the charms of love” (Kerven 2008: 50). On the other hand, "a huge ugly toad, with bold staring eyes and a horrible hiss” (Jacobs 2005: 118).
Thus, in the folktale blend we have got a mixture of biological characteristics: a human and an amphibian, a female person contrary to a man, having human speech. The extended metaphor “the wicked witch-queen is a Laidly Toad”, formed by means of nominative structures, also illustrates this idea. The blending of two opposite input spaces is revealed in the usage of personal pronoun she, in regards to the toad, and the onomatopoeia: "She croaked, and she hissed, and then hopped away down the castle steps” (Jacobs 2005: 118). The contrast between woman’s beauty and the appearance of the toad is expressed with the epithets that, if joined together, sound like antonyms: “a lady of great beauty” — "a loathsome toad”, "beautiful and quick-witted lady” — "an ugly, croaking toad”.
Another element that is projected into the folktale blend from the input space woman is trickiness. One of the main heroines of the tale The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh is a cruel and cunning witch. A king of Nothumbria takes her as his queen after his wife’s death. But she, being very envious, turns his daughter into a dragon. At the end, the prince, Childe Wynd, comes and saves his sister,
restoring the princess to her natural form and turning the witch-queen into a toad. Dragon castle is another version of this tale with slight differences. In both plots the witch-queen is shown in the same way. She is a beautiful, but foxy woman: "The king was ecstatically happy. For when the queen poured out his wine each night, she always laced it with love potion” (Kerven 2008: 51).
The connection of the queen with evil spirits, an element from the input space toad, can be easily traced in the tales: "She summoned her familiar imps and said: ‘Childe Wynd is coming over the seas; he must never land. Raise storms, or bore the hull, but nohow must he touch shore ' ” (Jacobs 2005: 116).
The generic space in this case is formed by one common element - magic. Its projection in the blend is stipulated by nouns witch,magic, spell: "That same night the queen, who was a noted witch, stole down to a lonely dungeon wherein she did her magic and with spells three times three she cast Princess Margaret under her spell” (Jacobs 2005: 115).
The elements not typical of other mental spaces and appearing only in the blend are jealousy and cruelty. They can be traced from the following example: "The new queen was jealous of her, and because of this she bullied her. She locked away the princess's jewelery, made her dress in cast-offs and sent her away early from the dinner table, so that the poor girl grew pallid and thin ” (Kerven 2008: 50). The scheme of yielding the blend toadwoman is roughly presented in figure 7.
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The figure shows that the folktale blend toadwoman combines the elements from the input space woman (a human, female person, contrary to a man, speech, beauty, trickiness) and the elements from the input space toad (amphibian, life in water and on land, connection with evil spirits). Their common element is “magic/witchcraft”. Main contextual features are “cruelty” and “jealousy”.
7. Conclusion
The described conceptual integration process of the formation of Russian and English folktale blends serves as a prove that national folktales appeared due to the interaction of imagination and everyday experience by means of exaggeration and rethinking. It also shows that, due to considerable investigation of folktale images, cultural heritage can still be traced in them.
Of course, one remark should be pointed out: this research doesn’t contain all-encompassing characteristics of the input spaces and the blends. Input space structures given above can further be
everyday life hasn’t also been considered, though it is a great sphere for study.
For example, in Russian there is an expression “they live as a wolf and a fox”, meaning they are constantly arguing. The Russians often use it in speech and rarely think of it as a backward projection to folktale images. Another example is Catwoman which on the cognitive level is usually associated with the American superhero films and comics. Though, it was firstly introduced in English folktales (for example The White Cat), where cats are inseparably connected with woman’s images. According to historical facts, cats always accompanied the Anglo-Saxon goddess of love and marriage - Freyja. In the fairy-tale discourse the blend Catwomanappeared as a result of the integration process between biological and cultural features associated with two input spaces cat andwoman. The further expansion of the blend became possible due to the contextual elements not typical of the input spaces but emerging in folktales. The list of such words and expressions can be easily extended. It is just a matter of time.
elaborated or changed. The functioning of folktale blends in
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Казакова Людмила Николаевна
Кафедра иностранных языков Юго-Западного Г осударственного университета (г. Курск) ЭПИГРАФЫ-БИЛИНГВЫ КАК МОСТЫ И ПЕРЕКРЕСТКИ, ФОРМИРУЮЩИЕ ГИПЕРРЕАЛЬНОСТЬ В ПОЭТИКЕ РОМАНА С. КЛЕМЕНСА И Ч. УОРРЕНА "ПОЗОЛОЧЕННЫЙ ВЕК” (1873)
Аннотация
В статье вводится понятие "эпиграф-билингва", рассматриваются взаимосвязи «автор-эпиграф-нарратив-читатель» в поэтике романа, главы которого предваряют эпиграфы из более 80 языков народов мира. Уникальность эпиграфов-билингв связана с их способностью развивать новые нелинейные подтекстовые ассоциации . Читатель-интеллектуал, способный оценить эстетическую и смысловую значимость эпиграфа-билингвы, вовлекается не только в изображаемые события, но погружается в культурную среду, аллюзией на которую выступает эпиграф. Эпиграф вместе с читателем становится создателем новых уровней прочтения, формируя дополнительные локусы-реальности внутри художественного пространства произведения. Таким образом, эпиграфы билингвы, содержащие иноязычные включения, выполняют функцию гиперсылок, развивая гипертекстуальные отношения. В статье рассматривается роман "Позолоченный век" (1873) М. Твена (С.Клеменс) и Ч.Д.Уоррена как одно из первых произведений, в поэтике которого множественные эпиграфы- билингвы способствовали формированию гипертекстуальных оотношений, в современном понимании гипертекста, как нелинейного нарратива.
Ключевые слова: эпиграф-билингва, интертекст, паратекст, гипертекст, подтекст.
Kazakova Lyudmyla Nikolayevna
Southwest State University, Kursk, Russia
CROSSING BRIDGES, DEVELOPING HYPERREALITY: BILINGUAL EPIGRAPHS IN THE NOVEL "THE GILDED AGE, A TALE OF TODAY" (1873) BY S. CLEMENS AND CH. D. WARNER
Abstract
The article proposes to apply the term "bilingual epigraph", considering "author-epigraph-narrative-reader" relationship in the poetics of the novel, preceded by numerous epigraphs from more than 80 languages over the world. Bilingual epigraphs are unique because they are able to develop new and nonlinear subtext associations. The intellectual reader that can value bilingual epigraph gets involved into manyleveled relations not only of the events portrayed, he also enters new cultural reality, where the bilingual epigraph becomes a key, an allusion. Epigraph together with a reader start to create new levels of reading, they both develop extra locuses within the artistic space of the work. Thus, bilingual epigraphs containing foreign-language elements, perform the function of reference (a footnote) developing hypertextual relationship. This article investigates the novel "The Gilded Age, a tale of today" (1873) by Mark Twain (S. Klemens) and Ch.D.Worren as one of the first works in which multiple bilingual epigrafs developed Hypertextual relations, in the modern sense of hypertext as a nonlinear narrative.
Keywords: bilingual epigraph, intertext, paratext, hypertext, subtext.
This article investigates bilingual interrelations between narratives and their epigraphs, as well as between epigraphs and foreign expressions incorporated into them. Bilingual statements in epigraphs have already become peculiar signs of intellectual writing. We find bilingual epigraphs in the works by A. Akhmatova, Th. S. Eliot, I. Brodsky, J. Joyce and J. Updike, and many other great writers all over the world. Bilingual epigraph originates from two languages and cultures simultaneously, besides, it ordinates from the primary text. Therefore it has a twice double nature. For such epigraphs comprising foreign segments the term ‘bilingual epigraph’ is proposed [L.Kazakova]. Being textual components and interrelating with allusions and associations, bilingual epigraphs develop numerous interrelations: intertextual as well as paratextual and subtextual too. Besides, having extralinguistic function, they serve as linking elements or doors into the new cultural worlds. So, bilingual epigraphs functioning simultaneously inside different cultural backgrounds and having a deliberate nature transform narrative into a hypertext where they serve as footnotes, references that allow a reader to transform narrative into a new deliberate structure depending on reader’s intellect and way of thinking.
Hypertext is a usual thing in our XXI century reality. This term was first applied by American sociologist and philosopher Ted Nelson in 1965 to characterize virtual nonlinear text growing and mixing with the other texts by one click of a reader. But much earlier hypertext effect appeared in the artistic world of literature. Really, hypertext in its literature variant didn’t’ appear first in J. Foer’s novel “Tree of Codes” (2010). The first try was made much earlier by other great Americans S. Clemens and Ch. D. Warner in their novel “The Gilded Age, a tale of today” (1873). This book became the first experience of making hypertext developed by numerous epigraphs to this novel. They were collected from about 80 languages, every chapter of this novel is preceded by one or more epigraphs given in their mother tongues. This complex collage of
epigraphs becomes a visual metaphor to heterogeneous multicultural reality of the Earth, where epigraphs serve as crossing bridges uniting distanced realities, languages, and cultures. As the allusions to the source texts and cultures, these bilingual epigraphs develop intricate non-linear relations with their old and new narratives, writers and readers. This novel was written as a great painting about 60-70s of the XIX century, during two hard post Civil War decades, also known as Grunder or Classic Liberal Period. Irony and mystification are the key devices in its poetics. They ‘grow up’ from the preface and epigraph. In the preface the writers mention that “in a state where there is no fever of speculation, no inflamed desire for sudden wealth, ...there are necessarily no materials for such a history as we have constructed out of an ideal commonwealth”. So, satire, parody and irony compose pathos of this novel. Mystifications start from recollection about German composer R. Vagner, who in fact wrote nothing about epigraphs. Epigraphs start every chapter. Whimsical mottoes written in various living and dead languages all over the world were selected by American philologist James H. Trumbull. Starting the whole novel epigraph tells an old Chinese proverb: Hie li shan ching yfr tung sin m pien kin/By combined strength, a mountain becomes gems: by united hearts, mud turns to gold. Writers’ joke paraphrase follows it: a maxim often painted on the door-posts of a Chinese firm which may be freely translated: two heads, working together, out of commonplace materials, bring THE GILDED AGE. Writers describe gilded reality, not gold. So, they express their critical attitude and genre characteristic of the novel in the epigraph, that is a true password to the novel based on ironical paraphrase as a key narrative strategy. Other numerous mottoes starting every chapter are paraphrased Biblical statements, folk legends, proverbs and literature texts. Some chapters have two and even more epigraphs. Total collage composes a complex metaphor of gilded age as an illusion of brightness, wealth and happiness. This image became more visual in the first
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