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23THE LINGUOCUTURAL APPROACH TO THE ANALYSIS OF THE
LITERARY TEXT
Sitora Rustamova
2nd year master's student of Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages
ABSTRACT
This article deals with the relationship between the cognitive processing of a literary text and the literary-aesthetic experience of real-life readers. It presents several kinds of failures in the reading process, based on the foregrounding model. Foregrounding is the process whereby a textual element becomes salient relative to other elements, part of the text's "forefront", and therefore more available for literary interpretation. Foregrounding theory is one of the leading theories in the empirical study of literature, with considerable literature to support it.
Keywords: Linguoculturology, culture, language, literary text, approach, stylistic devices, allusion.
Language is a dynamic set of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication. Definitely language is one of the most important phenomena of culture. Culture in linguistics is described as socially acquired knowledge of the world, as well as attitudes towards it. The power of language to reflect culture and influence thinking was first proposed by an American linguist and anthropologist, Edward Sapir (1884-1939), and his student, Benjamin Whorf (1897-1941).
Linguoculturology is a relatively new science that has arisen at the junction of two sciences - Linguistics and cultural studies. The subject of today's cultural linguistics is the study of the cultural semantics of linguistic signs, which is formed in interaction of two different codes - the language and culture, as each person is both a language and cultural identity. Therefore, linguistic signs can serve as a "language" of culture, resulting in the ability of language to display national cultural mentality of its speakers. Moreover, linguoculturology is a science which studies language as a phenomenon of culture and also the influence of language on culture and culture on language in different communities throughout the world. One of the main mechanisms of the linguocultural analysis of the literary text is cultural concepts involved in the literary text.
A literary text is permeated with numerous cultural codes, it stores information about the history, ethnography, ethic psychology and behavior, i.e. everything pertaining to culture and literary text conveys aesthetic, emotional and evaluative information as well. The literary text creates the linguoculturological portrait of a nation and enables the reader to see the common and natural traits in people"s behavior,
mentality and views. So the analysis of the literary text from the point of view of linguoculturology can be done in the following directions:
- To define culture specific units and interpret them;
- To conceptualize the culture specific stylistic devices and concepts;
- To decode the cultural concepts represented in the text.
Interpretation of the literary text from the position of linguocultural approach requires understanding and perception of national and cultural values expressed by the author. For instance, the author may use in his works proverbs and sayings as culture specific units. Proverbs are simple and concrete sayings that express truth based or the practical experience of humanity. Proverbs as culture specific units can be illustrated on the materials of W. Shakespeare's works which abound in proverbs. He used proverbs in the titles of two of his comedies: "All's Well that Ends Well" and "Measure for Measure". In his well-known tragedies, Romeo and Juliet and particularly in Hamlet (Scene 5, Act I), he used a series of proverbs that were frequently used in England at that time:
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
The time is out ofjoint; brevity is the soul of wit;
There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so;
An old man is twice a child;
The cat will mew and dog will have his day;
Though this be madness, yet there is method in 't.
Another cultural trait of literary text is convergence of stylistic devices and concepts since they convey the author's evaluative attitude towards the event described. Moreover, in recent years stylistic devices have been regarded as cultural models mostly as they serve the purpose of reflecting culture as an allusion.
Allusion is an indirect reference to a person, event, or thing or to a part of another text. The author usually eludes a text to make a connection with a particular context. We can see the allusion in Abraham Lincoln"s work called "The Gettysburg Address".
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
In this sentence the author refers to the American Revolution using an allusion to the date 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. "Four score and seven years agol means eighty-seven years, since a score is twenty years. Eighty-seven years earlier than 1863 is 1776. So, this allusion activates knowledge structures concerning American history.
We can also illustrate cultural specificity of stylistic devices in the story called "England, My England" by D.H.Lawrence. The author attracts the attention of the reader to the subtle feeling of beauty that characterizes Egbert as a real Englishman having the roots in ancient times by using a number of stylistic devices:
He looked again, straining his keen blue eyes, that had a touch of the Viking in them, through the shadowy pine trees as through a doorway, at the greengrassed garden-path rising from the shadow of alders by the log bridge up to the sunlit flowers.
The sunlight blazed down upon the earth, there was a vividness of flamy vegetation, of fierce seclusion amid the savage peace of the commons. Strange how the savage England lingers in patches: as here, amid these shaggy gorse commons, and marshy, snake infested places near the foot of the south downs. The spirit of place lingering on primeval, as when the Saxons came, so long ago. Ah, how he had loved it! The green garden path, the tufts of flowers, purple and white columbines, and great oriental red poppies with their black chaps and mulleins tall and yellow, this flamy garden which had been a garden for a thousand years, scooped out in the little hollow among the snake-infested commons. He had made it flame with flowers, in a sun cup under its hedges and trees. So old, so old a place! And yet he had re-created it.
The hyperbole "had been a garden for a thousand years" as well as an allusion to Anglo-Saxons "as when the Saxons came" and Vikings, Egbert's eyes "had a touch of Viking in them " prove it. The repetition in the inner speech of the hero "So old, so old a place!" presents a great affection of his for the land he works on, to the house, and to England so dear to him.
In conclusion it is essential to emphasize that the linguocultural approach to the analysis of the literary text helps to comprehend cultural specific units, stylistic devices and concepts conveyed by the literary text and perceive the author's national and conceptual world picture.
REFERENCES
1. Ashurova D.U., Galieva M.R., Stylistics of literary text. Tashkent - 2013.
2. Lawrence D.H. The Woman Who Rode Away and other stories. Web edition, 2014.// ebooks.adelaide.edu.au
3. Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка. Москва: «Высшая школа», 1981. (www.filologs.ru).
4. http://twirpix.com
