The philosophical problem of language in the novels by Walker Percy

The aim of the research is to identify the role of language and speech behavior of characters in revealing the author’s philosophical intent in the novels by Walker Percy, namely “Lancelot”, “The Second Coming” and “The Thanatos Syndrome”. The paper is original in that it is the first to substantiate the connection between Percy’s theoretical inquiries in the philosophy of language and the principles of construction of plots and characters’ images in his later novels. Percy finds that the main function of language is not in naming facts of reality or establishing abstract connections between them, but in a person’s realization of the ontological meaning of what is happening through an awareness of the social and vital significance of what is being uttered. Mechanical manipulation of clichéd expressions and the dominance of form over content in speech become indicators of the characters’ internal emptiness and their loss of human essence. The return of individual meaning to spoken words is closely linked to the internal spiritual transformation of the characters. As a result, the research demonstrates that the characters’ speech in Percy’s novels serves an important function in characterizing their existential status: changes in speech signify essential changes in the characters’ nature, their proximity or distance from the understanding of the meaning of life.