“The New Ways of the Word”: Theory and Methodology of Cognitive Research into Poetics of the Avant-Garde

Abstract

The present paper aims to study the avant-grade manifesto as the manifesto of a new type and to analyze factors that establish the specificity of its poetics. The research shows that the specific character of the avant-garde manifesto’s poetics is provided by the phenomenon of avant-garde, peculiar ways of historical evolution of the manifesto as a literary genre, and pragmatic goals of the avant-garde manifesto that influence the choice of appropriate language means and artistic and linguistic devices. Special attention is paid to the theory and methodology of exploring the avant-garde manifesto’s poetics that are elaborated on the manifesto “The New Ways of the Word” written by Aleksej Kruchenykh. The methodology is complex and includes the method of frame semantics, the method of ID card of avant-garde idioms, the method of linguocultural reconstruction, and the quantitative analysis. The methodology involves a fivelevel analysis that includes: 1) the interpretive analysis of the title of the avant-garde manifesto; 2) the frame analysis of the text aimed to extract language units that are most relevant in conceptual and practical terms; 3) the study of figurative-expressive means of the text of the avant-garde manifesto; 4) quantitative analysis of idioms and phraseological units used in the text in question; 5) the study of the semantics of the avantgarde idioms and phraseological units. The results obtained let us draw the following deductions. The avant-garde idioms and phraseological units are the key constitutive elements shaping the poetics of the avant-garde manifesto. One of the basic techniques used to construct the poetics of the avant-garde manifesto is the conceptual-metaphorical collage.