Key metaphors in the narrative structure of Vladimir Kornilov’s story “The Forest Master”. Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the writer (1923–2023)

Abstract

The article presents a philological analysis of metaphorical linguistic means in the novelette of Vladimir Grigor’yevich Kornilov, the significant Soviet prose writer of the 2nd half of the 20th century. The purpose of the study is to identify the structural-semantic and communicative-pragmatic properties of the key metaphors actively involved in the organisation of narration, the creation of narrative polyphony and psychologism in the depiction of characters and events, the formation of textual meanings, and the explication of the conceptual content of the work. The study of metaphors in a contextual environment is based on the genre and stylistic features and narrative characteristics of literary prose. Key metaphors with a high narrative potential serve as important means of forming a narrative structure: with their help, character and event development is carried out, the action is put forward in time and space, and the semantic dominants of the text are created. The author of the article gives a brief review of linguistic studies of metaphors in the system of language and speech, and she outlines the theoretical foundations of modern narratology. The article also singles out the main features of metaphors and looks into the key metaphors in different fragments of the text. The author of the article elicits numerous comparative constructions, built on the man vs. wildlife likening. The article also characterises phraseological metaphorical means of creating psychologism of the narrative. Creative transformations of fixed expressions carried out by replacing components within the expression, reflect the individual speech features of the characters of the story. In conclusion, the article underlines the role of the key metaphors in the formation of the narrative characteristics of the text and the structural and semantic organisation of literary prose. Semantic synergy of lexico-phraseological and syntactic figurative means creates the metaphorical field “Man and Nature” explicating the conceptual content of the work, reflecting the author’s position and forming text modality.