Intertextual transformation of chivalric images in postmodern prose: linguistic and cultural aspect - Курсовая работа

Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine Kyiv National Linguistic University Professor O. M. Morokhovsky Chair of English Lexicology and Stylistics COURSE PAPER “INTERTEXTUAL TRANSFORMATION OF CHIVALRIC IMAGES IN POSTMODERN PROSE: LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL ASPECT” Kira Zhukova Kyiv 2013 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1. CHAPTER ONE. THEORETICAL BASIS FOR THE STUDY OF INTERTEXTUALITY IN POSTMODERN ENGLISH PROSE 1.1 Main approaches to the study of intertextuality 1.2 Typology of intertextual relations 1.3 Intertextuality as a key concept of postmodern literature 2. CHAPTER TWO. INTERTEXTUAL RELATIONS IN NEIL GAIMAN’S SHORT STORY ‘CHIVALRY’ 2.1 Postmodern interpretation of chivalry 2.2 Desacralization of chivalric image on the verbal and cognitive-verbal levels GENERAL CONCLUSIONS РЕЗЮМЕ BIBLIOGRAPHY INTRODUCTION Intertextuality is a relatively new field of study, although its foundations go back to the works of such scholars as Mikhail Bakhtin, Ferdinand de Saussure and other prominent representatives of humanities, who worked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. CHAPTER ONE. THEORETICAL BASIS FOR THE STUDY OF INTERTEXTUALITY IN POSTMODERN ENGLISH PROSE Today’s world of the open information flaws, Internet, media and Globalization led to an intensive semiotization of life. Our epoch, postmodernity, can be named as the ‘golden era’ of intertextuality, which from a simple textual theory developed into a universal category that underlies practically all relations in society and culture. The accessible knowledge, long history and sciences assured us, that time is not linear, but everything repeats itself in circles. It awoke a feeling, that everything has been already said and even if we manage to come up with something new, to prove this innovation, the new meaning should be anyway contrasted to all that was previously said. On the other side, when there is no claim of novelty, the use of already existing form very often becomes a prestigious indication of author’s familiarity with the cultural and semiotic heritage, the ‘semiosphere treasure’, as Yuri Lotman calls it. It is impossible to cover all spheres, where intertextuality is applicable, so in this paper we try to concentrate on at least three of them: literature, postmodern English prose in particular, culture and language. But for a comprehensive analysis of intertextuality in these spheres, we cannot do without an insight into the controversial development and discrepant interpretations of the term from the very point of its creation, or even earlier. 1.1 Main approaches to the study of intertextuality The genealogy of the theory of intertextuality can be traced back to Ferdinand de Saussure’s study of semiotics and Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism. Although in their theories they didn’t mention intertextuality directly, their works introduced the ideas, which were further developed into the nowadays widely used theory of intertexuality. Ferdinand de Saussure, the Father of modern linguistics, introduced a completely new theory of language that treated the language as a structured system of elements, rules, and meanings that were socially conceived. First of all, he distinguishes between langue (language), which is ‘the product, passively registered by the individual [33; 14], ‘a system of signs expressing ideas’ [33; 15], and parole (speech), ‘an individual act of the will and the intelligence through which the speaker uses the code provided by the language to express his own thought’ [33; 14].