Analysis of a Literary Work
While interpreting a literary work the student is supposed to view the work
of art both as a dynamically developing world and internally completed piece of
writing. The analysis includes using literary and linguistic techniques and methods
of textual research.
Linguistic analysis helps to identify additional meanings which are hidden
in words and their grammatical forms, to show the deployment and the ratio of
conceptually significant semantic fields, determine the semantics of key text units
and the “play” of meanings. M.M. Bakhtin emphasized that literature is not just a
simple use of the language, and it is the source of expressing artistic knowledge ...
the image of the language, artistic self-awareness.
Philological analysis of a literary text involves the interaction of literary and
linguistic approaches to it. In this regard, artistic text is viewed both as an aesthetic
phenomenon with integrity, imagery and fiction, and as a form of addressing the
world, i.e. as a communicative unit in which, in turn, a certain communicative
situation is modeled; and as a definite dynamic system of linguistic means.
Philological analysis includes constant transitions from content to form and
back. The analysis of the text has a cyclical character. We are constantly moving
from form to content and back, giving preference to form at first. Observations of
the form and its analysis make it possible to draw meaningful conclusions, which,
in turn, are tested again by examining the linguistic means and the figurative system
of the text in its dynamics.
The analysis of a work of fiction is mainly based on the personal aesthetic
experience of the researcher. In this sense, his perception is subjective.
Taking into account the selected aspects of the analysis allows us to develop
an approximate scheme (model). This is a scheme for a comprehensive philological
analysis, primarily of a prose text, which, in our opinion, should include the
following main
stages:
1) determination of the genre of the work;
2) a characteristic of the architectonics of the text;
3) consideration of the structure of the narrative;
4) analysis of the space-time organization of the work;
5) consideration of the system of images of the text;
6) a generalizing characteristic of the ideological and aesthetic content of the
text.
The text of a literary work becomes the main object of interpretation. Any
text is a system of signs and it possesses such important properties as coherence,
delimitation, integrity. In addition to these properties, researchers distinguish the
following ones: perceptibility, intentionality (intention), completeness, connection
with other texts and emotiveness.
In a literary text, unlike other texts, the intra-textual reality (in relation to the
extra-textual one) has a creative nature, i.e. created by the imagination and creative
force of the author. Thus, it is conditional, usually fictional, in its nature. The world
depicted in a literary text correlates with reality only indirectly, reflects, refracts,
transforms it in accordance of the intentions of the author. To designate this feature
of a literary text, the term “fictionality” is used, emphasizing the convention, fiction,
and mediation of the inner world of the text. Fictionality covers various objects of
the image, space and time, extends to the process of narration and can include the
subject of speech (narrator, storytellers). Reference in a literary text is usually carried
out to objects of possible worlds modeled in the work.
At the same time, the boundaries between fiction and non-fiction texts are
often rather vague: fiction, on the one hand, can be present in documentary works;
on the other hand, elements of non-fictional texts can also be presented in a literary
text; moreover, it can sometimes relate to reality.
A literary text is a complex system in terms of organization. On the one hand,
this is a private system of means of the national language, on the other hand, a
literary text has its own code system, which the addressee (reader) must decipher a
certain code in order to understand the text.
So, a literary text is a private aesthetic system of linguistic means,
characterized by a high degree of integrity. On the one hand, it is unique, on the
other hand, it uses typical construction techniques. It is an aesthetic object that is
perceived in time and it has a linear extension.
A literary text is always an addressed message: it is a form of communication
“author – reader”. The text covers “aesthetic communication”, during which the
addressee (reader) must perceive the author’s intentions. Any literary text, to which
the reader turns, evokes in him certain expectations, which are usually conditioned
by the ideas inherent in the mind of the addressee about the problems, composition
and typical characteristics of the text, within a certain genre. Further interpretation,
as a rule, is already associated with attention to the deployment of images, to
repetitions, sequence and peculiarities of the compatibility of linguistic means of
different levels. That is why the philological analysis of a literary text usually starts
from its content side, but then consistently includes in its sphere the consideration
of the speech system of a literary work.
Philological analysis of a literary text generalizes and synthesizes data from
linguistic, linguistic-stylistic and literary analysis. Linguistic analysis of the text is
the initial stage of philological analysis. Linguistic analysis of the text involves
commenting on various linguistic units that make up the text, and considering the
features of their functioning, taking into account their systemic connections.
Linguistic analysis is an analysis in which it is considered how the figurative
structure is expressed in the artistic speech system of a work. Linguistic-stylistic
analysis is a kind of bridge between linguistic and literary analysis: its object is the
text as the structure of verbal forms in their aesthetic organization.
Literary analysis, finally, is primarily an analysis of the ideological and
aesthetic content of the text, consideration of the problems, genre specifics, the
system of images of a literary work, determination of its place among other texts,
etc.
Philological analysis combines, first of all, literary and linguistic-stylistic
analyses, since both refer to the figurative structure of the text in its dynamics. As
an aesthetic object, an artistic text is never given as a finished thing. It is always
given, as an intention, as a direction of artistic and creative work and artistic and
creative contemplation.
Philological analysis should contribute to the comprehension of the author’s
intentions and take into account these stimuli of artistic impression that activate the
reader’s perception and help him get closer to understanding the text.
The reader’s expectations are primarily associated with the genre of the
work, which is determined by the author and, in turn, determines the typical
principles of text composition, vision, understanding and selection of material.
The text is always organized by one point of view or another, it is realized in
the form of a lyric monologue, dialogue, narration, which presupposes a certain
subject of speech and reflects the sphere of his consciousness. Philological analysis
of the text requires an obligatory reference to such compositional-speech structures
as the author’s speech and the speech of characters, consideration of the types of
narration and various points of view presented in the text. This is especially
important in cases where the position of the narrator differs greatly from the
evaluative position of the author.
The literary text serves as a plan for expressing the figurative structure of the
work. The image is always an aesthetically organized structural element. It explains
the use of the forms of its verbal construction and the principles of its compositional
development. Images can be combined in a consistently deployed chain, they can
relate to one another or they can include each other. This compositional development
must constantly be the focus of the researcher.
A literary text unfolds not only in time, but itself also creates a certain model
of space-time relations, generates one or another image of time and space. “Any
entry into the sphere of meanings, – said M.M. Bakhtin, – is performed only through
the gates of chronotopes”. Thus, one of the most important stages in the philological
analysis of a text should be the analysis of its spatio-temporal organization.
A literary text as part of culture is always associated with other texts that are
transformed or partially used in it, serve to express its meanings. The appeal to the
philological analysis of the text is, thus, connected with the consideration of
intertextual connections. A philological analysis of a literary text is inconceivable,
without attention to its structure, primarily to the system of repetitions and
oppositions in it, and also without taking into account the most vivid signals of the
author’s position (the semantics of the title, key words of the text, conceptually
significant proper names, etc.).
Composition of the Text. Architectonics of the Text
A literary text is a communicative, structural and semantic unity, which is
manifested in its composition. The composition of a literary text is the mutual
correlation and arrangement of units of the depicted and artistic-speech means. This
is the construction of the work, which determines its integrity, completeness and
unity.
The composition of the text is determined by the author’s intentions, genre,
and the content of the literary work. It is a system of connection of all its elements.
This system also has an independent content, which should be revealed in the process
of philological analysis of the text. Its object can be different aspects of composition:
1) architectonics, or external composition of the text, – dividing it into certain
parts (chapters, sub-chapters, paragraphs, etc.), their sequence and interrelation;
2) a system of images of characters in a work of art;
3) change of points of view in the structure of the text. The point of view
problem is the central problem of composition. Consideration of different points of
view in the structure of the text in relation to the architectonics of the work allows
us to reveal the dynamics of the development of artistic content.
4) the system of details presented in the text (composition of details); their
analysis makes it possible to reveal ways to deepen the depicted;
5) extra-plot elements and their correlation with each other and with the rest
of the text component: a story in a story (inserted short stories), lyrical digressions,
“scenes on stage” in the drama, etc.).
Compositional analysis, thus, takes into account different aspects of the text.
First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between the external composition
(architectonics) and the internal composition. If the internal (meaningful)
composition is determined primarily by the system of images-characters, the features
of the conflict and the originality of the plot, then the external composition is the
division of a text characterized by continuity into discrete units. Composition is
therefore a manifestation of significant discontinuity in continuity.
The boundaries of each compositional unit highlighted in the text are clearly
defined by the author (chapters, sections, parts, epilogues, etc.), this organizes and
directs the reader’s perception. The architectonics of the text serves the way of
portioning the meaning; with the help of compositional units, the author points out
to the reader to unite, or, conversely, to dismember the elements of the text (and
hence its content). No less significant is the lack of text division or its expanded
fragments. The non-marking of compositional units emphasizes the integrity of the
spatial continuum, the fundamental non-discreteness of the organization of the
narrative, the non-differentiation, fluidity of the narrator’s or character’s worldview,
see, for example, stream of consciousness.
Each compositional unit is characterized by methods of advancement, which
provide the highlighting of the most important meanings of the text and activate the
attention of its addressee. These are, firstly, various graphic highlights, and
secondly, repetitions of linguistic units of different levels, thirdly, strong positions
of the text or its compositional part – positions of advancement associated with
establishing a hierarchy of meanings, focusing attention on the most important,
strengthening emotionality and aesthetic effect, the establishment of meaningful
connections between adjacent and distant elements belonging to the same and
different levels, ensuring the coherence of the text and its memorability. The strong
positions of the text traditionally include titles, epigraphs, the beginning and end of
a work (parts, chapters). With their help, the author emphasizes the structural
elements most significant for understanding the work and at the same time
determines the main semantic milestones of a particular compositional part (the text
as a whole). Units of architectonics are, therefore, units of textual structure; in the
process of philological analysis, they should be considered taking into account
aesthetic organization of the whole.
There are two main types of division of the text: volume-pragmatic and
contextual-variable.
Volume-pragmatic division takes into account, firstly, the volume of the
work, and secondly, the peculiarities of the reader’s perception (it attracts his
attention). The main units are volume, books, parts, chapters (acts), paragraphs. The
volume-pragmatic division interacts with the contextual-variable division, as a result
of which, firstly, the contexts organized by the author’s speech (the narrator’s
speech) are distinguished, and the contexts containing another speech – the speech
of the characters (their individual remarks, monologues, dialogues); secondly,
description, narration and reasoning. These compositional forms are singled out, as
we see, already taking into account the subject of speech. Both types of division are
interdependent and consistently reveal content-conceptual information of the text.
Volume-pragmatic division can be used as a way to highlight the point of view of
the character. Division into paragraphs help to emphasize the perceptual point of
view of the hero and his inner speech. The volumetric-pragmatic division of the text
can also perform other textual functions: emphasize the dynamics of the narrative,
convey the peculiarities of the passage of time, express emotional tension, highlight
the depicted reality (face, component of the situation, etc.) in close-up.
Among peculiarities of text, there is another important feature such as
coherence. Sections (parts) of the text selected as a result of division relate to each
other, “concatenate” on the basis of common elements. There are two types of
connectivity: cohesion and coherence.
Cohesion (from Latin cohaesi – “to be connected”), or local connectivity, is
a linear type of connectivity expressed formally, mainly by linguistic means. It is
based on pronominal substitution, lexical repetitions, the presence of conjunctions,
the correlation of grammatical forms, etc. Cohesion defines the continuity of the
semantic continuum in the text.
Coherence (from Latin cohaerentia – “cohesion”), or global connectivity, is
a nonlinear type of connectivity that unites elements of different levels of the text
(for example, the title, epigraph, “a story in a story” and the main text, etc.). The
most important means of creating coherence are repetitions (primarily of words with
common semantic components) and parallelism. Semantic chains appear in a literary
text – chains of words with common semes, the interaction of which gives rise to
new semantic connections and relationships.
The deployment of semantic series (chains), their location and relationship
can be considered as the semantic composition of the text, the consideration of which
is significant for its interpretation.
Any literary text is permeated with semantic echoes, or repetitions. Words
related on this basis can take a different position: located at the beginning and at the
end of the text (circular semantic composition), symmetrically, form a gradation
series, etc.