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129Бюллетень науки и практики /Bulletin of Science and Practice Т. 6. №6. 2020
https://www.bulletennauki.com https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55
UDC 82.0 https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55/47
THE REPRESENTATION OF THE AUTHOR'S INDIVIDUAL WORLD PICTURE
IN THE LITERARY TEXT
©Fayzullaeva M., ORCID: 0000-0002-4557-912X, Uzbekistan State University of World
Languages, Tashkent, Uzbekistan
РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ ИНДИВИДУАЛЬНОЙ КАРТИНЫ МИРА АВТОРА В ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОМ ТЕКСТЕ
©Файзуллаева М. Р., ORCID: 0000-0002-4557-912X, Узбекский государственный университет мировых языков, г. Ташкент, Узбекистан
Abstract. The article encompasses the scrutiny of the author's individual world picture representation in the literary text. The world picture of the author defines his/her modality, positivenegative attitude to the realities of the world or the characters and events in the literary text. Of great importance to the research is conditioned by the fact that there are particular linguistic means which illustrate the author's image either explicitly or implicitly. Specifically, concepts, descriptive contexts and symbols are investigated within the scope of the research as the most frequently used linguistic means in revealing the author's worldview. Additionally, the article presents the analysis of the literary texts to support the theories standing behind the topic.
Аннотация. Статья включает в себя изучение репрезентации авторской индивидуальной картины мира в художественном тексте. Картина мира автора определяет его модальность, позитивно-негативное отношение к реалиям мира или персонажам и событиям в художественном тексте. Большое значение для исследования обусловлено тем фактом, что существуют определенные лингвистические средства, которые иллюстрируют картина мира автора прямо или косвенно. В частности, концепции, описательные контексты и символы исследуются в рамках исследования как наиболее часто используемые лингвистические средства при раскрытии мировоззрения автора. Кроме того, в статье представлен анализ литературных текстов в поддержку теорий, стоящих за этой темой.
Keywords: author's individual world picture, author's meditation, concepts, descriptive context, symbols, writer's modality.
Ключевые слова: индивидуальная картина мира автора, авторская медитация, концепции, описательный контекст, символы, модальность писателя.
In the literary text, the national world picture is represented through the author's individual world view, as it is the author who is accounted to be a representative of this or that nation or culture. The author's world view is the perspective from which and through which a writer views characters, events, and decisions.
The author's world picture influences the plot and the actions of his/her characters in the text. Partially or totally, the characters come out to be the depiction of the author's thoughts about the world. In some cases, the author's world picture is explicitly displayed in the text, but, mostly, it is presented implicitly by the author.
Бюллетень науки и практики /Bulletin of Science and Practice Т. 6. №6. 2020
https://www.bulletennauki.com https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55
One of the problems of revealing the author's world picture is to find the linguistic means which serve as the signals of the author's worldview. The analysis of linguistic literature shows that concepts, descriptive context, symbols, poetic details, the author's meditation, syntactic structures, and keywords can be regarded as the signals representing the author's world picture. They are considered to be the clues to define the author's individual world perception in the literary text. The above-mentioned linguistic means can be differently utilized in the literary texts and the thorough analysis of them assists to reveal the author's views about the world surrounding him/her.
To begin with, cultural concepts are often used by the writers to highlight the most valuable notions in life in accord with their own world vision. An illustration of the brightest depiction of the author's individual world picture via concepts can be observed through the works of Somerset Maugham. He was always proud of his dispassionate and composed view of life. He always tries to observe life itself objectively and clinically with great efforts for all his life and describes the result of the observations faithfully in his novels. His novels start mainly from a character. Though his novels are realistic and gloomy, Somerset Maugham's novels are very interesting, due to the fact that he writes the truth of human nature. Somerset Maugham wants the readers to draw their own judgments and conclusions over the characters and events described in his novels. He had his own understanding of the world through which he encoloured his works. Most critiques assume that it is the world vision of the writer which made his works unique and peculiar in contrast with the works of other contemporary writers. He could masterfully couple realistic portrayal of life, keen character observation, and interesting plots with expressive language and lucid style in his works.
The novels and short stories written by Somerset Maugham are incredibly famous for their harsh, yet very fair solutions to different problems. Most critiques find the writing style of this writer to be very ironic and sarcastic. His famous short story "Happy man" and the novel "The moon and sixpence" are considered to be masterpieces of the author, which effectively portray the writer's attitude towards that time and people. Somerset Maugham's perceptions lie in the understanding that life itself is full of risk and compensations. This very assumption can be figured out through his short story "Happy man". The author asserts the fact that most people get scared to attain their dreams due to difficulties or risks that need to be resolved. Nevertheless, he strongly believes that taking a risk, people may eventually lose something, whereas they can gain something else, which can turn out to be really valuable for them. This short story runs about a desperate man who confided his life to a total stranger. The beginning of the story clearly shows the side at which the author is standing and expressing his point of view about life:
It is a dangerous thing to order the lives of others and I have often wondered at the self-confidence of politicians, reformers, and suchlike who are prepared to force, upon their fellow's measures that must alter their manners, habits, and points of view. I have always hesitated to give advice, for how can one advise another how to act unless one knows that other as well as one knows oneself? Heaven knows, I know little enough of myself: I know nothing of others. We can only guess at the thoughts and emotions of our neighbors. Each one of us is a prisoner in a solitary tower and he communicates with the other prisoners, who form mankind, by conventional signs that have not quite the same meaning for them as for himself. And life, unfortunately, is something that you can lead but once; mistakes are often irreparable, and who am I that I should tell this one and that how he should lead it? Life is a difficult business and I have found it hard enough to make my own a complete and rounded thing; I have not been tempted to teach my neighbor what he should do with his. But there are men who flounder at the journey's start, the way before they are confused and hazardous, and on occasion, however unwillingly, I have been forced to point the finger of fate. Sometimes men have said to me, what shall I do with my life? and I have seen myself for a moment wrapped in the dark cloak of Destiny.
Бюллетень науки и практики / Bulletin of Science and Practice Т. 6. №6. 2020
https://www.bulletennauki.com https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55
Somerset Maugham does not reject the fact that life is very important as well as difficult. At times, people have to make risky and responsible decisions, yet whatever happens, people should keep in mind that there is always a compensatory character in all incidents. Particularly, the lines "Each one of us is a prisoner in a solitary tower and he communicates with the other prisoners, who form mankind, by conventional signs that have not quite the same meaning for them as for himself' show the explicit message and motif of the author: Every person is a prisoner of his own solitude and no one else can comprehend the inner emotional explosions of others. Somerset Maugham's world-picture can be analyzed through the literary layer of the text, as the writer utilizes poetic words and a variety of stylistic devices here. Consequently, they assist the readers to get the main idea of the text. The metaphors like "a prisoner in the solitary tower" and "dark cloak of Destiny" show the readers the writer's attitude towards life and the value of life.
The main cultural concept that is pushed forward by the writer is the concept of "happiness". According to the author's view, happiness does not depend on wealth, social state, or other surroundings, that it is the feeling of self-satisfaction and can be reached when one strives for the achievement of his/her dreams with all his might. The main hero of the current story first hesitates on the way towards his choice, yet his final resolution rewards him with lifelong happiness. Although he leaves his family, job, friends, social state, he truly becomes happy with even less income or a lower position in society. He follows his dream of living in Spain and eventually the place and the nature of his favorite city make him incredibly happy and satisfied with his life.
Secondly, descriptive contexts can be an important sum of linguistic means indicating the author's individual world picture. A descriptive context is a part of the whole text, which depicts and describes the features of a particular place, event, personage, or object. In most cases, description occurs in artistic portraits and nature depictions assuming very important functions of emotional impact and characterization of the inner psychological state of personages. Descriptive contexts of personage fulfill several pragmatic functions, indicating explicitly or implicitly the age of the person, his social position, emotional characteristics intensified by a cluster of epithets. Importantly, a descriptive context often expresses the subjective modality of writers. Especially, nature and portrait descriptions are often charged with modal meanings.
To illustrate, a famous English novelist and playwright John Galsworthy was especially famous for his vivid and realistic descriptions of characters, events, and nature. One of his popular short story "The apple tree" is also enriched with live descriptive contexts. The following extract from the story displays the full scenery of the nature surrounding the personages:
It was nearly eleven that night when Ashurst put down the pocket "Odyssey" which for half an hour he had held in his hands without reading and slipped through the yard down to the orchard. The moon had just risen, very golden, over the hill, and like a bright, powerful, watching spirit peered through the bars of an ash tree's half-naked boughs. In among the apple trees, it was still dark, and he stood making sure of his direction, feeling the rough grass with his feet. A black mass close behind him stirred with a heavy grunting sound, and three large pigs settled down again close to each other, under the wall. He listened. There was no wind, but the stream's burbling whispering chuckle had gained twice its daytime strength. One bird, he could not tell what, cried "Pip-pip", "Pip-pip", with perfect monotony; he could hear a night-jar spinning very far off; an owl hooting. Ashurst moved a step or two and again halted, aware of a dim living whiteness all around his head. On the dark unstirring trees innumerable flowers and buds, all soft and blurred were being bewitched to life by the creeping moonlight. He had the oddest feeling of actual companionship, as if a million white moths or spirits had floated in and settled between the dark sky and darker ground, and were opening and shutting their wings on a level with his eyes. In the bewildering, still, scentless beauty of that moment he almost lost memory of why he had come to the orchard. The
Бюллетень науки и практики / Bulletin of Science and Practice Т. 6. №6. 2020
https://www.bulletennauki.com https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55
flying glamour which had clothed the earth all day had not gone now that night had fallen, but only changed into this new form. He moved on through the thicket of stems and boughs covered with that live powdering whiteness, till he reached the big apple tree. No mistaking that, even in the dark, nearly twice the height and size of any other, and leaning out towards the open meadows and the stream. Under the thick branches, he stood still again, to listen. The same sounds exactly, and a faint grunting from the sleepy pigs. He put his hands on the dry, almost warm tree trunk, whose rough mossy surface gave forth a peaty scent at his touch. Would she come — would she? And among these quivering, haunted, moon-witched trees he was seized with doubts of everything! All was unearthly here, fit for no earthly lovers; fit only for god and goddess, faun and nymph not for him and this little country girl. Would it not be almost a relief if she did not come? But all the time he was listening. And still, that unknown bird went "Pip-pip", "Pip-pip", and there rose the busy chatter of the little trout stream, where on the moon was flinging glances through the bars of her tree-prison. The blossom on a level with his eyes seemed to grow more living every moment, seemed with its mysterious white beauty more and more a part of his suspense. He plucked a fragment and held it close - three blossoms. Sacrilege to pluck fruit-tree blossom - soft, sacred, young blossom - and throw it away!
The extract presents a detailed description of the orchard, where the personages meet. There are used a quite high range of linguistic units to decode the implicit message as well as the writer's modality towards the objective world. In other words, the text is characterized by the highest degree of emotional tension, which arises mostly from the convergence of stylistic devices: epithets (creeping moonlight, still scentless beauty, haunted, moon-witched trees, soft, sacred, young blossom), personification (the stream's burbling, whispering chuckle, busy chatter of the little trout stream, the moon was flinging glances), similes (he had the oddest feeling of actual companionship as if a million white moths or spirits had floated it and settled between the dark sky and darker ground). The author strives to describe the blossoming orchard so that the reader could fancy the beauty of the blossoming orchard. Most importantly, there is used an interesting genuine metaphor "tree-prison", which can be very handy in identifying the inner worldview of the author. Interestingly, the unexpected metaphor "tree-prison" is stated oppositely to all other language means of poetic character. The contrast created by this metaphor serves as a signal of conceptual information and fixes the reader's attention on this image. The very cognitive metaphor is expressed by a composite consisting of two components: tree and prison. The component "tree" stands for those parts of the text where the beauty of the orchard is praised and at the same time, "tree" is the symbol of the concept of nature too. The other line of associations is presented by the second component - prison. The meaning of this word remarks totally a new understanding: supernatural, magical power, and influence of nature on man.
The cognitive metaphor conceptualizes the author's purport which is understood as the influence of nature on the man [1-5]. It becomes clear that the content of the text is not confined to a mere description of the orchard; it contains implicit information indicative of the hero's inner state, his subtle, poetic nature, and a sense of beauty. This information appears to be very important for the interpretation of the whole story because it might change the reader's evaluation initially done on the basis of only factual information. Firstly, while reading the text, readers may blame the main hero - Ashurst for being unfair towards the young lady. However, the author calls readers for not hurrying up in making decisions against the hero. The author wants to remark that it is nature which highly impacts the hero and takes advantage of him. So the descriptive context depicting the beauty of the apple-tree orchard highlights the fact that the author intends to prove that a man is so powerless in front of such enormous beauty of nature that he is easily lost among the wonders of it.
Бюллетень науки и практики / Bulletin of Science and Practice Т. 6. №6. 2020
https://www.bulletennauki.com https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55
Thirdly, a symbol is another linguistic means which can be considered as an indicator of the implicit world picture of the author. A symbol can be a person, object, image, or event that evokes a range of additional meaning beyond its first denotation. Symbols appear to convey the implicit modality of the authors. Conventional symbols have meanings that are widely recognized by a society or culture. Symbols give writers the freedom to add double levels of meanings to his work: a literal one that is self-evident and the symbolic one, the meaning of which is far more profound than the literal one. They give readers an opportunity to get an insight into the writer's mind on how he views the world and how he thinks of common objects and actions, having broader implications. As an illustration, "Wuthering Heights" a novel, by Emily Bronte can be analyzed. The novel is full of symbols, which reveal the hidden motif and views of the author about life. The most significant symbol in the novel is the symbolization of the weather. As has been remarked in the previous paragraph, the topic of weather is a tightly fixed ornament of the national mentality of the English and it is often used as a symbol of the emotional state of characters in the literary texts. Emily Bronte introduces a series of symbolic notions in her novel, "Wuthering Heights", and the symbol of weather is used as a key attribute to describe every shade of peculiarity of the personality, inner world, and motifs of the personages. To illustrate, the extreme winds, snow, and thunderstorms prevalent at the Heights, where the Earnshaw's live, symbolize the hardness and complicated personality of its inhabitants. On the contrary, at Thrushcross Grange the weather is described to be more delicate and mild like the lifestyles of its inhabitants, the Linton's. The following extract from Chapter 6 narrates about the incident when the weather symbolizes the existing state of emotions in the personages:
"The household went to bed; and I, too anxious to lie down, opened my lattice and put my head out to hearken, though it rained, determined to admit them in spite of the prohibition, should they return".
The extract refers to the flow of events when Catherine and Heathcliff get lost and Hindley and the servants cannot find them. At this point, Hindley, who is unable to find his sister, is fueled with rage and anger, and the author transfers his current emotional state to the weather, displaying it to be unbelievably angry and gloomy too. So, the bad weather could be seen as a sign of Hindley's anger at Cathy and Heathcliff's absence. Noteworthy, throughout the whole text, the weather is used by Emily Bronte to mirror the emotions of the main characters, and it is seen as being essential to understand the strange world of the personages. Thus, in Chapter 6, the rain helps the reader to identify the anger of the hero at the disappearance of the other heroes. The weather conditions like strong rain and wind are also presented in the novel when Mr. Earnshaw dies, Heathcliff departs from Wuthering heights and when Heathcliff dies.
In brief, the author's individual world picture represents his/her views, outlook, and perception of the objective world. In this aspect, most linguists consider the literary work as a big conceptual metaphor revealing the author's vision of the world and his emotional assessment towards life. Understanding the author's world picture is one of the most important points in comprehending the psychology, inner perceptions, and basic tendencies of the author's personality and analysis of his literary language and the language of his estimates. The linguistic means such as concepts, descriptive context, symbols, poetic details, the author's meditation, syntactic structures, and keywords can be regarded as the signals representing the author's world picture. Besides them, lingua cultural units are also accounted to be key clues to define the author's individual world perception in the literary text. The lingo cultures can be verbalized in different forms in the literary texts and the thorough analysis of them assists to reveal the author's views about the world surrounding him/her.
Бюллетень науки и практики / Bulletin of Science and Practice Т. 6. №6. 2020
https://www.bulletennauki.com https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55
References:
1. Ashurova, D. U. (2012). Text Linguistics. Tashkent. (in Uzbek).
2. Ashurova, D. U., & Galieva, M. R. (2012). Stylistics of literary text. Tashkent. (in Uzbek).
3. Aznaurova, E. S., Fomenko, N. V., Ashurova, D. U., Molchanova, G. G., Petrova, E. G., Pogosyants, E. M., & Zimon, E. I. (1990). Interpretation of literary text. Tashkent. (in Uzbek).
4. Rogal, S. J. (1997). A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group.
5. Vezhbitskaya, A. (1996). Yazyk. Kul'tura. Poznanie. Moscow. (in Russian).
Список литературы:
1. Ashurova D. U. Text Linguistics. Tashkent. 2012.
2. Ashurova D. U., Galieva M. R. Stylistics of literary text. Tashkent. 2012.
3. Aznaurova E. S., Fomenko N. V., Ashurova D. U., Molchanova G. G., Petrova E. G., Pogosyants E.M., Zimon E. I. Interpretation of literary text. Tashkent: Ukituvchi, 1990.
4. Rogal S. J. A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia. Greenwood Publishing Group,
1997.
5. Вежбицкая А. Язык. Культура. Познание. М.: Русские словари, 1996.
Работа поступила Принята к публикации
в редакцию 08.05.2020 г. 11.05.2020 г.
Ссылка для цитирования:
Fayzullaeva M. The Representation of the Author's Individual World Picture in the Literary Text // Бюллетень науки и практики. 2020. Т. 6. №6. С. 356-361. https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55/47
Cite as (APA):
Fayzullaeva, M. (2020). The Representation of the Author's Individual World Picture in the Literary Text. Bulletin of Science and Practice, 6(6), 356-361. https://doi.org/10.33619/2414-2948/55/47
