Vaulina S.S., Bulataya E.V. Irony in F.M. Dostoevsky’s Novel The Brothers Karamazov: Functional-and-Semantic Aspect
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2024.1.2
Svetlana S. Vaulina
Doctor of Sciences (Philology), Professor, Institute for Humanities, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University
A. Nevskogo St, 14, 236041 Kaliningrad, Russia
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7109-2836
Elena V. Bulataya
Candidate of Sciences (Philology), Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Theory and Practice of Germanic Languages, Baranovichi State University
Voikova St, 21, 225404 Baranovichi, Belarus
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7948-5108
Abstract. The article deals with the phenomenon of irony in a literary work. Irony is viewed in the study as one of the text-forming categories of hidden character, which performs the role of a meaningful component in the fictional text. It forms the semantic plan of the literary work and realizes the author's implicit evaluation. The place and role of irony in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov are defined: irony is expressed within the author's implicit evaluation of the characters' relationship among themselves and their attitude to certain facts of reality, as well as in the writer's direct assessment of the personal qualities of the characters. At the same time, through irony the writer reveals not only the violation of ethical norms by the characters of the novel, but also their negative moral values. It is established that in order to actualize ironic evaluation the author of the work combines in one context a number of mechanisms of ironic meaning formation: double antithesis; antithesis combined with an illogical conclusion; contextual reinterpretation of the lexeme meaning in conjunction with antithesis. The complexity of the mechanisms of irony realisation in the novel imparts a sophisticated multifaceted character to the writer's assessment.
Key words: implicit evaluation, fictional text, irony, mechanism of irony actualisation, F.M. Dostoevsky, "The Brothers Karamazov".
Citation. Vaulina S.S., Bulataya E.V. Irony in F.M. Dostoevsky's Novel The Brothers Karamazov: Functional-and-Semantic Aspect. Vestnik Volgogradskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya 2. Yazykoznanie [Science Journal of Volgograd State University. Linguistics], 2024, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 18-28. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/jvolsu2.2024.1.2
Irony in F.M. Dostoevsky’s Novel The Brothers Karamazov: Functional-and-Semantic Aspect by Vaulina S.S., Bulataya E.V. is licensed under CC BY 4.0