Schirova I.A., Sergaeva Yu.V. Syncretism As a Science Fiction Text’s “Dimension”: Experience of Systemic Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2022.2.13

Irina A. Schirova

Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Head of the Department of English Philology, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Reki Moyki Emb., 48, 191186 Saint Petersburg, Russia

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https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3378-8677

Yulia V. Sergaeva

Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor, Department of English Philology, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Reki Moyki Emb., 48, 191186 Saint Petersburg, Russia

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https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2868-5190

Abstract. The complex phenomenon of syncretism has been a subject of close academic scrutiny in various aspects of humanities, social and natural sciences. In this paper, the study of syncretic features of science fiction texts fits into broader sociocultural context and relates to increasing complexity of modern reality, science and fiction. Understanding a fictional text as a complex and multidimensional integral whole, the authors consider syncretism a typologically marked textual "dimension", produced by a complex system of interrelated and interactive heterogeneous characteristics, fused into a textual whole to realize the author's intention. To confirm the hypothesis, the authors explore the syncretic science fiction texts of the 20 th – 21 st centuries which create a unique fictional world to produce a blended model of the traditionally opposed ways of human cognition: rational and emotional. The authors give a brief overview of the specifics of understanding syncretism in different scientific disciplines; offer the definition of syncretism and the methodology of its description; distinguish three types of syncretism (syncretism of reality, of intention, and of language data); analyze heterogeneous textual characteristics as systemic manifestations of syncretism at different levels of textual organization: subject-and-thematic, lexical-and-semantic, and structural-and-syntactic. The mechanism of creating a syncretic text is connected with the deautomatization of a reader's perception and with higher cognitive activity of the interpreter.

Key words: syncretism, category of complexity, integrity, science fiction text, constitutive property, authorial intention, artistic model.

Citation. Schirova I.A., Sergaeva Yu.V. Syncretism As a Science Fiction Text's "Dimension": Experience of Systemic Description. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2022, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 159-170. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2022.2.13

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