Stylistic Expressiveness of the Literary Discourses by Stefan Zweig and William Somerset Maugham: Comparative Aspect

This article is devoted to the study of the stylistic resources in literary discourses of the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig and the British writer William Somerset Maugham. The study is conducted on the material of the novel «Impatience of the Heart» (Ungeduld des Herzens), as well as on the material of the novel «The Painted Veil». The purpose of the work is achieved by applying a comprehensive method of comparative, interpretative and stylistic analysis. It is established that one of the most common approaches to the study of texts is a discursive approach. The essential components in this approach are such subjects as the author, the reader, as well as the text itself. A distinctive feature of the texts of literary discourse is the active use of means of stylistic expression and of other stylistically marked linguistic units. The article examines the usage features of metaphors, epithets, and comparisons from the standpoint of the discursive study of literary texts, as well as their functional specifics. A quantitative comparative analysis of the studied material is carried out. It is established that the means of literary expression in belles-lettres discourse realize the following functions: description of the internal and external portrait of the characters of the work, description of the actions of the characters, description of the plot events of the literary work, as well as detailing landscapes and various objects of the realities of the literary work. The analysis of the material showed that the literary discourse of the two authors under study has certain similarities and differences. Both in the text of the novel «Ungeduld des Herzens» and in the text of the novel «The Painted Veil», the most frequent function of stylistic devices was the function of portraying characters. The study showed that the quantitative ratio of stylistic devices among the authors is different: the most frequent means of expression in a German-language novel was an epithet, in an English-language novel – a comparison. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the study of the functional specificity of stylistic devices with the help of discursive study in a comparative aspect of different linguocultures. The prospect of the research is further consideration of the means of literary expression in literary texts of various genres in a comparative aspect.