A linguistic analysis of an excerpt from F. M. Dostoevsky’s novella "Notes from Underground"
https://doi.org/10.30515/0131-6141-2021-83-3-84-96
Abstract
The article presents the results of a linguistic analysis of an excerpt from the novella "Notes from Underground" by F. M. Dostoevsky. In this literary work the protagonist-narrator looks back on his school years. The paper aims to clarify the range of issues outlined in the novella and the "underground man’s" image by identifying the principles of selection and composition of linguistic units. The research employed general scientific (observation, description, comparison, statistical analysis), general linguistic (structural, contextual, narrative, intertextual), and proper linguistic (syntactic, lexical-semantic) methods. The excerpt chosen for analysis is the key to understanding the psychology and ideology of the protagonist-narrator; it is characterised by dialogicity, paradoxicality, emotionalism, and expressivity which mark Dostoevsky’s individual style. The performed analysis makes it possible to conclude that the character traits the hero-narrator developed in adolescence remain psychologically dominant in his personality in his after-school life. The Underground paradoxalist’s Ideology is to a great extent a generalisation of the psychological experience of a person who did not overcome his teenage crises.
About the Author
E. M. VinogradovaRussian Federation
Elena M. Vinogradova, Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor
Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Vinogradova E.M. A linguistic analysis of an excerpt from F. M. Dostoevsky’s novella "Notes from Underground". Russian language at school. 2022;83(3):84-96. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.30515/0131-6141-2021-83-3-84-96
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