On The Classification Of Psychic-Emotional State Explication Strategies In Artistic Discourse

Abstract

This article is a comprehensive analysis and classification of strategies for explicating the psycho-emotional space of modern female prose, with its desire to convey the internal state of the characters through which the views, thoughts and inner experiences of the writers themselves are revealed. The specificity of artistic discourse also determines the interaction of the characters and the author with the reader: each work of art has a certain pragmatic potential. The study of the criterion features of psychologization tools, which, within the framework of the formation of various tactics, make up various strategies, should naturally include an analysis of the individual author’s overtones of the psycho-emotional meaning, as well as the principles of the use and functioning of markers of the psycho-emotional space, which provides hermeneutic-semiological and hermeneutic – nematic methods. These strategies are based on the author’s intention, his main goal is to tell an interesting story, draw attention to a specific social problem or tell about his own emotional experiences caused by some event in the life of the writer herself. Thus, we have identified three main strategies for narrative psychologization in the discourse of modern female prose: the fatic-hedonistic one – aimed at attracting and entertaining the reader, the regulatory-manipulative – actualizing attention to one or several social problems that concern the writer, and the explicative-reflective one – used for disclosing the inner world and the experiences of the author in an art form.

Keywords: Literary textnarration psychologizationwomen's prosepsychologization strategiesspeech strategies

Introduction

The anthropocentric approach currently prevailing in the study of literary text is based on the analysis of explication markers in the text space of the author and the character, as well as their interaction with each other and with the reader, implemented in four chronotope models: 1) producer – recipient, 2) characters of the generated text among themselves; 3) actors of the generated text – the recipient, 4) producer – actors of the generated text ( Milostivaja, 2010). Thus, a necessary condition for the true disclosure of the multifaceted psycho-emotional space of the text ( Booth, 1983) is the study of strategies and tactics to increase the degree of psychology, taking into account the criteria of a continuous dynamic artistic chronotope contained in the archetypal triad of objectification / demarcation of the meaning “author – hero – reader”.

Problem Statement

The issue of psychologization as a process and result occupies a special place in psycholinguistics and especially in artistic discourse, where the “author – hero – reader” interaction actually unfolds, the effect of which is to change the reader’s internal, subjective characteristics and views ( Recanati, 1996). This imposes a certain responsibility on the author and gives him some power: the intention and intentions of the author are of key importance.

To date, there is no classification of narrative psychologization strategies as such, which allows us to assert that the identification of criteria-based means that form tactics and strategies to increase the degree of psycho-emotionality of a literary text within the hermeneutic-noematic approach is innovative and represents significant theoretical significance.

Research Questions

In the course of this study, we sought to show that the strategies of psychologization are determined by the author’s intention, which in most cases is based on the desire to have a certain psycho-emotional effect on the recipient as part of the formation of a special prospective interpretative perception ( Bredikhin, 2014).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to describe the classification of narrative psychologization strategies we have developed in the artistic space of the text of female psychological prose.

Research Methods

The methodological basis of the study was the principles of consistency in the analysis of phenomena as integral entities, which in terms of the anthropocentric approach allows us to identify the dynamic communicative specificity of the considered phenomena of psychologization.

The use of hermeneutic-semasiological and hermeneutic-noematic methods ( Alikaev et al., 2018) gives interesting results in the analysis of the criterion features of psychologization tools that make up a particular strategy with the inclusion of the analysis of original texts and texts of translations of literary works, which makes it possible to identify individually-created overtones of the psycho-emotional meaning, as well as the principles of use and functioning of markers of the psycho-emotional space.

Findings

In the course of developing a classification of narrative psychologization strategies based on the works of contemporary female psychological prose that we examined, we turned to the works of Issers ( 2008) and Kovalev ( 1987). While the first work is devoted to a detailed review and study of speech strategies in general and strategies of speech exposure in particular, the second is completely devoted to strategies of psychological impact. In this connection, we could only take the classifications proposed by the researchers as the basis for creating our own, since psychologization, in our opinion, is a special phenomenon in artistic discourse, and psychological impact is only one of its components and possible results. A psychologized work does not have to prompt the reader to take any action, to inspire him with any ideas. Psychologization can serve exclusively as a component of aesthetic, emotional perception. The determining factor in the function of psychologization is the author’s intention. Certainly deserving close attention in the framework of the explication of psycho-emotional attitudes in the art of gender-marked discourse (the study of which we address in our work), the primary approach of creative author’s goal-setting in using different tactical strategies as the basic prognostic component of the text is essentially intentional and deliberate application of norms and rules immanently given by the author within the framework of his own author-associative speech production. Moreover, it is a comprehensive model of analysis of ideal expectations, which necessarily includes a description of nuclear prognostic strategies for explication of author’s intention, provides ample opportunity to clarify almost all the available cases of psychologized statements, which also eliminates generalized expressiveness, but actualizes the internal marking of the “projection intentionally set by the author” nuclear elements” of sensory experiences of both the author and the heroes ( Bredikhin & Serebryakova, 2016).

Therefore, it is necessary to determine what communicative goals modern writers pursue. Based on the works we analyzed, we identified three main author’s intentions, on the basis of which we formulated a classification of strategies and tactics of narrative psychologization: appeal to the readership, drawing attention to a problem, and conveying personal experience and experiences.

Issers ( 2008) divides speech strategies into main (semantic, cognitive) and auxiliary ones, which include pragmatic (communicative-situational), dialogue and rhetorical strategies. It is important to note that in her work, Oksana Sergeevna also defines the communicative task (intention) of the speaker as the basis for the classification of speech strategies ( as cited in Issers, 2008). In turn, Kovalev ( 1987) identifies imperative, manipulative and developing strategies of psychological impact.

Despite the sharp transition of female prose to a darker, more serious direction over the past two decades, many works by contemporary writers still belong to the genres of chick-lit, a female novel, or a romantic short story. But modern women's prose seeks to expand its readership, moves away from the stereotype of “for women”, so more and more works in this category relate to detectives, thrillers, psychological novels.

The main task of most of these works is to attract and entertain the reader, the main goal of the author is to tell an interesting story. In this regard, the chosen psychologization strategy will be aimed at attracting and retaining reader's attention, primarily due to interesting and close to him plot and characters. This strategy is to some extent related to the developing and manipulative paradigms described by Kovalev ( 1987), since the author wants to make his work memorable, to achieve a certain emotional response from the reader. In our opinion, this strategy of psychologization can be described as a fatiko-hedonistic.

Another series of works, which became an echo of the traditions of post-feminism and the ongoing movement for women's rights, has the goal of drawing attention to a specific problem in modern society. Often this concerns precisely the position of women in society, but also writers touch upon the problems of racism, violence and subsequent prosecution of the victim, aborion, psychological deceases. This strategy of psychologization in a certain way has the features of imperative, manipulative and developing strategies. Despite the fact that these works are primarily of artistic value and do not call readers to active social actions directly, they are aimed at changing public consciousness. Actualizing the existing problems in modern society, writers make the reader realize them and think about their negative impact on the life of both individuals and society as a whole. This strategy can be called regulatory and manipulative.

Finally, the third strategy we have highlighted is aimed at expressing in an artistic form the feelings and thoughts of the writer herself. Such works are often autobiographical, in the plots and in the heroes themselves you can find echoes of the author’s reality, on the basis of which they were created, clearly visible views of writers on various phenomena and events of their surrounding reality: numerous stories of such pillars of Russian female prose, in which parallels are traced between the main characters and the writers themselves. Thus, this strategy can be described as explicative-reflective.

Despite the fact that one of the strategies we have selected will dominate in a single work, the possibility of realizing several within one work is not ruled out. This thesis correlates with the division of Issers ( 2008) speech strategies into main and auxiliary, where the main strategy means the most significant for the author from the point of view of the hierarchy of his motives and goals. Supporting strategies, according to Issers ( 2008), contribute to the effective organization of dialogue interaction, the optimal impact on the recipient as part of the main speech strategy.

Of course, under the influence of various, including economic, factors, the first psychologization strategy described by us – the fatiko-hedonistic one – is the most common in modern literature. Thus, in this case, the fatiko-hedonistic strategy performs a secondary function, while the main one becomes explicative-reflexive.

Conclusion

Consideration of a literary text with a complicated emotionally-psychological space from different points of view led to the conclusion about its complex structural and semantic organization ( Olomskaya et al., 2018). In addition to the semantic space, its structure also distinguishes the spiritual, the content of which is aimed at providing an aesthetic and psychological impact on the reader. This is impossible without the psychologization of the work, that is, a deep image of the emotional state of the characters, their inner world. At the same time, along with the disclosure of the character’s image, the author expresses his own thoughts and feelings in a deliberately applicative expression, the focus of which is put on the intentional activity of implicative representation of the general apperception base of the psycho-emotional elements of the characters based on the collective intentional free attitude to the person’s inner world in an individual copyright reflection.

In some cases, such an disclosure is the main intention of the writer. Other priority goals of the author are, of course, entertaining the reader with an interesting story, as well as drawing his attention to any social problem that excites him. Thus, the author’s intention plays a major role in organizing the work and in choosing a psychologization strategy, which, on the basis of our analysis of modern female prose, can be divided into fatik-hedonistic, regulatory-manipulative, and explicative-reflexive.

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