The artistic technique of metamorphosis in the novel «The Petty Demon» by Fyodor Sologub

About the author:

Tatiana A. Osmankina,

Postgraduate Student, Department of Linguistics and Literary Studies, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia

osmankinata@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8365-2328

Abstract:

The article deals with the implementation of the artistic technique of metamorphosis in the novel by Fyodor Sologub «The Petty Demon». The trope acquires a mystical character in the text: all linguistic means of expression are literalized and control the plot. Realistic motivation is only at the top level of the narrative, on the deep side, the text is symbolically mythologized, the projection on folklore reflects the principle of archaic syncretism «everything in everything». The boundaries between humans, animals, plants, and inanimate objects are blurred. Most of the characters belong to the type of werwolf heroes, their zoomorphism is more pronounced from episode to episode, it is a particular manifestation of the tendency of the entire novel narrative, which appears to be a detailed increasing gradation. Language play is important in Sologub’s poetics, the word in his aesthetics is “primary” to reality, events in the novel plot are caused not by external factors, but by hidden codes embedded in language. The semantic structure of the verbal world is developed through the literalization of linguistic metaphors and phraseological units, secondary sacralization, symbolic encoding, “revived” speech cliches, puns, playing on homonymy, violations of lexical compatibility and other techniques. The article provides a step-by-step analysis of the correlation of expression linguistic means and their implementation in the system of characters, plot and speech composition of the novel.

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