Формирование личности «культурных метисов» как результат непродуктивного лингвокультурного взаимодействия (на материале романа Д. Клевелла «Сёгун»)

It is widely known that communication activities are aimed at meeting practical and communicative goals. However, speech interaction is not always successful. Communicative failures are constant in people's communication, they are natural due to the fact that misunderstanding, misinterpreting, inability to hear, as well as inability to correctly express a thought are almost inevitable companions of natural communication. In communicative-pragmatic linguistics, the definition of communicative failure is gradually emerging. Following O.N. Ermakova and E.A. Zemskaya we consider communicative failure to be "a complete or partial misunderstanding of a statement by a communication partner, i.e. non-fulfillment or incomplete realization of the speaker's communicative intention"

2.1. The degree of development of the research topic

The topic of intercultural and interlinguistical interaction and its outcomes has been widely discussed in the investigational works by contemporary Russian and foreign scholars such as Voloshina T.G., Glebova Y.A., Blaschevich J.S., Baghana J. (2019). But the enumerated authors focused their attention rather on interlinguistical contacts; meanwhile we attach a big importance to the total psychological and cultural metamorphosis of a person under consideration. 

2.2. Scientific problem

In the course of the research, a theory of the formation of the linguistic personality of "cultural mestizos" was developed as a result of conflicting intercultural interaction. In this work, a number of new terms have been introduced that represent a specific approach to the studied object of linguistic reality in the context of the developed theory, namely: "cultural hybrid" or "cultural mestizo", whose origin is due to intercultural clash interaction. This term should not be confused with the definition attributed to the persons born as a result of mixed marriages. In this paper, by the above-mentioned terms we mean the transformation of linguistic personality of a cross-cultural dialogue’s participant, its hybridization as a result of forced fusion with an alien linguistic environment and culture. Modern world culture looks like a multifaceted panorama of national cultures. The culture of the 21st century is seen as a global integration process in which different ethnic cultures are mixed. As a result of such a socio-cultural situation, a person finds himself on the edge of cultures, interaction with which requires him to understand the dialogic nature and value dominants of another ethnic group. This helps to show respect for the cultural identity of other people. Such a "cultural half-breed" becomes an empath, a psychologist of someone else's cultural system. Based on the above, the following definition of the phenomenon under consideration can be given: the linguistic personality of a "cultural mestizo" is a person who has mastered the verbal and semantic code of native and non-native languages, the linguistic and conceptual picture of the world of both linguistic cultures.

The purpose of the research is to develop a theory of the formation of the secondary linguistic personality of the "cultural mestizo" as a result of non-productive cross-cultural interaction, in refraction of the West-East dialogue, including all its multibranched ethno cultural specifics.

2.3. Methods and principles of investigation

descriptive analytical method, historico-etymological method, component analysis method, contextologist method of analysis, decoding stylistics principles of foregrounding. The research material is the novel "Shōgun" by James Clavell.

2.4. Main results

We made a thorough analysis of the communicative behavior of the main character of the novel under consideration. Besides, the protagonist’s psychological and speech portraits were drawn. We found out that communicative failures are the result of intercultural barriers between the interlocutors. Ethnocentrism is regarded as the main factor of misunderstanding leading to a highly antagonistic intercultural communication. At first the central figure finds himself in a new linguistic and cultural ambience. He suffers one fiasco after another feeling as a complete stranger in this hostile environment. He becomes a victim of his own incapability to accept another mentality, without coping with the consequences of chronic diplomatic failures. But success comes after many failures. Gradually his secondary linguistic personality is being formed, new cultural habits are acquired, new similarities are emerging and the new shape of the world is created. It was an endless maze that ended in a puzzle. Puzzle that was eventually solved. In spite of the fact that under such circumstances people had to obey orders (no matter how illogical they sometimes seemed), Blackthorne chooses the most difficult and extraordinary way to handle the problem (from Western European point of view) by performing a bloody ritual sepukku. The most difficult and the most noble solution under the prevailing circumstances. Unexpectedly he was prevented from committing suicide and deserved the true respect from Toranaga, despotic ruler’s side. Under the powerful impact of alien culture, a deep psychological and mental transformation occurred in Blacktorne’s consciousness. He became a different person after experiencing a kind of second birth. Metaphorically speaking a number of these reformations turned him into a “cultural mestizo”, a person who balances on the verge of two opposing cultures and actually becomes a representative of both.

According to the anthropocentric paradigm, the focus of modern linguistic research is a person – a native speaker or a bilingual one, a speaking, thinking personality. Researchers pay special attention to a linguistic personality – a personality that manifests itself in speech activity and in speech behavior, has a combination of knowledge and ideas, realizes itself in communicative process, intentionally and because of established speech habits, chooses a particular communication strategy in a particular act of communication, a set of language means, meanwhile actualizing certain pragmatic sense and meanings, the interpretation of which allows one to go beyond the text into the pragmatic field of discourse. We revealed the evolution of a linguistic personality of the main character into a “cultural mestizo’s’’ multicultural linguistic personality with considerably broadened horizons as a result of numerous antagonistic acts of communication through which he underwent.

Moreover, the result of our analysis may be the speculation that Homo Sapiens survived and came to control the planet only because he’d adapted more completely and more quickly than had other species to changing climates and environments. Taking into consideration the fact that people are highly suggestive creatures this adaptation takes place also in language and cultural ambiance. Therefore, this high adaptability contributes to the formation of a “cultural mestizo’ s” linguistic personality. Eventually artful interlocutors of cross-cultural dialogue are developed.

James Clavell's novel "Shōgun" is fairly illustrative in terms of communicative failures, since this work is conceived as a dialogue between two incompatible, diametrically opposed and alien to each other cultures of the West and the East.

The construction of artistic images in the novel "Shōgun" is characterized by great rational and organizational power, since the novel itself is a glorification of the mighty empire, the land of the rising sun. The novel on the whole is interpreted as a test of its main character, an Englishman by birth, John Blackthorne, a navigator, owner of the ship Erasmus, who sailed from the shores of Holland, the leader of an expedition whose goal was to discover new lands in the Pacific Ocean. The novel’s action takes place in the XVII-th century. By this time, Japan had already been discovered by Portugal. The expedition also aimed to pave new trade routes between Asia and the Netherlands, as well as to limit the growing influence of Spain in the New World, with which Holland was at war for religious reasons. Many members of the ill-fated expedition died due to hunger and diseases, and the ship itself ran aground off the coast of Japan. Thus, John Blackthorne and the surviving members of his team fell into the clutches of bloodthirsty Asians.

Buddhism was dominant in Japan at that time, and the Japanese worldview was invariably refracted through the prism of this Indian teaching. The victorious march of Buddhism across Asia began before the new era. Buddhism entered the land of the rising sun already in Chinese guise and entered the flesh and blood of the Japanese people, became a part of their daily life. Followers of the spiritual teachings of the East defined the afterlife as nirvana or liberation – as the only goal of human efforts somewhere else, but not here, not in this vale of tears and illusions. Karma, according to the teachings, embodying the law of cause and effect, is the key word of the novel and occurs in it 164 times, and is always italicized, which cannot remain without the reader's attention: "Karma was an Indian word adopted by Japanese, part of Buddhist philosophy that referred to a person’s fate in this life, his fate immutably fixed because of deeds done in a previous life, good deeds giving a better position in this life’s strata, bad deeds the reverse. Just as the deeds of this life would completely affect the next rebirth. A person was ever being reborn into this world of tears until, after enduring and suffering and learning through many lifetimes, he became perfect at long last, going to nirvana, the Place of Perfect Peace, never having to suffer rebirth again".

A similar explanation of this system of representations, according to which karma is the law of cause and effect, is found in the encyclopedic dictionary “Collier’s New Encyclopedia”: "Mental and moral capacities gained by struggle in one of many incarnations become innate qualities, exercised “naturally”, without effort, in a later incarnation, and thus progress is secured. This law, by which all causes work out their due effects, is called Karma (the Sanscrit word for action), according to this all thoughts, good and bad, leave their traces on the thought body and reappear as tendencies in future lives. No escape from this sequence of cause and effect (underlined by us O.V.) is possible. Thus, a trouble generated by past action is inevitable, it is on our Karma. <…> We made our present destiny in our past and we are making our future destiny in our present" (Collier’s New Encyclopedia:345).

According to the Japanese, it is possible again and again, from life to life, to acquire the former achievements of the soul, mind and even vital manifestations, which within this life occur as spontaneous blossoms, innate talents or generally a high level of development and social status. You only need to practice in order to catch the thread of previous lives again, and there is even an amazing experience in which you see just the break point where the work completed in previous lives ends and a new stage begins. Thus, the thread binds and continues. However, cellular progress in the body, the progress of physical consciousness, obviously cannot pass into the next life; everything is scattered in the ground or on a funeral pyre.

It is symbolical that the author pronounces the word "karma" in a strong position, i.e. at the end of the work. The final lines of the novel contain this lexical unit:

"Mariko-san, it was your karma to die gloriously and live forever. Anjin-san, my friend, it is your karma never to leave this land. It is mine to be Shōgun.

Kogo, the goshawk, fluttered on his wrist and settled herself, watching him. Toranaga smiled at her. I did not choose to be what I am. It is my karma".

The use of this principle of foregrounding (decoding stylistics’ term developed by I.V.Arnol’d: 2002) ensures the unity of the structure of the text and its consistency, strengthening the connections between the whole and its parts and the interaction between the parts within the whole. Frequent repetition of the concept "karma" combines expressiveness with emotionality and highlights the main idea of the novel.

It is interesting to note that each nation has created its own cultural "computer" in the process of development, which has its own inimitable characteristics. Therefore, the mechanical transfer of the cultural "program" of one "computer" to another, without an appropriate "translator", inevitably leads to the failure of the latter. Even such fundamental concepts as space, time, volume and speed of transmitted information are perceived by different nations in their own way. Let's look at them in more detail.

Every living being has a visible shell – the skin that separates it from the environment. But besides it, there are a number of invisible shells, which, however, are no less real than the visible one. The invisible shell closest to a person is called a "personal space", which surrounds him like a cocoon and can vary in size depending on a number of reasons: the individual's attitude to nearby people, his emotional state and upbringing, the nature of his/her current activities, etc. The sizes of these "cocoons" vary markedly from culture to culture. The "cocoons" of the Japanese are quite large, and it forces them to maintain a certain distance during communication. In this regard, E. Hall wrote that one of the functions of culture is to create a "dense filter" between a person and the outside world. It is culture that determines what we should pay attention to and what we should ignore

“Eight cumulus arise

For the lovers to hide within.

The Eightfold Fence of Izumo Province

Enclose those Eightfold clouds –

Oh how marvelous, that Eightfold Fence!”

We would certainly go mad if we didn’t have an Eightfold Fence, oh very yes!".

This example is, in the terminology of Anna Vezhbitskaya, a "culturally conditioned scenario", namely, a "scenario of feelings" or a scenario of Japanese restraint. As A. Vezhbitskaya writes: "Culturally conditioned scenarios are short sentences or small sequences of sentences through which an attempt is made to capture the unspoken norms of the culture of a community from the point of view of their bearer" and at the same time present these norms in terms of concepts common to all people"

In the above passage we find an example of haiku/hokku which represents a Japanese three-part poem traditionally dealing with images of the natural world, much imitated in the Western XX-th c. literature. Hokku became an independent literary genre in Japan in the XVII- XIX-th c. Samurai who pronounced hokku before his unavoidable death was his farewell message to the world.

Along the way, we note that in general, the appeal to the philosophical and cultural study of the phenomenon of poetry is the exit of culture to its extracultural, transcendental horizon, where culture can find its universality. Communication between people belonging to different cultures often turns into a clash of prejudices, leads to mutual misunderstanding and feeds the idea of a clash of civilizations. Poetry, from our point of view, provides unique opportunities for a deep dialogue of cultures, involving the most stable and culturally organic structures of mentality. This is due to the fact that in poetry, mental habits and cultural stereotypes not only find their expression, but are creatively transformed. The dialogue, that is impossible between mentalities, in the poetic interaction of cultures gets a chance to be realized successfully. Thus, the dialogue of cultures also gets a chance. Thus, the center of culture is at its border, where it meets other cultures. Only by crossing this border can we keep a different culture as an urgent mystery for us.

Let's take a closer look at the socio-cultural and linguistic reasons for the differences in Western and Eastern mentalities. Many modern researchers consider the Japanese to be mysterious, friendly, but restrained, always smiling, and yet not cheerful. The fact is that they are mostly more often seen in groups, which makes personal contact difficult. Indeed, the East and the West fundamentally differ in the way they think and feel. For example, the Japanese mostly use their intuitive right hemisphere of the brain. The reason, apparently, lies in the millennial development of the Japanese language. Japanese characters called kanji are not sounds written in letters of our alphabet, but pictures. The kanji for a mountain or river is a perfect example of this. This means that the Japanese think abstractly, using images from childhood. Logic is not a subject of interest in Japan. There is no need to evaluate this in any way, it's just that the Japanese think in a different manner, which is no better or worse than our own. Intuitive thinking is a wonderful ability and, in our opinion, the world would be richer if all people in the West mastered this art.

It is no coincidence that Blackthorne notes to himself that the Japanese, even on a physical level, feel the world differently, which inevitably leads to communicative misfires in communicating with them:

"Although Blackthorne felt chilled, Yabu and the others, who had their light kimonos carelessly tucked into their belts, did not seem to be affected by the wet or the cold. It must be as Rodrigues had said, he thought, his fear returning. Japmen just aren’t built like us. They don’t feel cold and hunger or privations or wounds as we do. They are more like animals, their nerves dulled, compared to us".

After reading the above example, the idea involuntarily suggests itself that for a European, Asians are a kind of "extraterrestrials" living in a completely different dimension, although they are in fairly close physical contact with him. Naturally, such a different perception of temperature fluctuations, atmospheric phenomena and pain by the Japanese only contributes to the emergence of communication failures between communicants.

Later, Rodrigo warns Blackthorne about the unpredictability of the actions of the Japanese and their incredible ability to transform, remaining a mystery to others:

"Never forget Japmen’re six-faced and have three hearts. It’s a saying they have, that a man has a false heart in his mouth for all the world to see, another in his breast to show his very special friends and his family, and the real one, the true one, the secret one, which is never known to anyone except himself alone, hidden only God knows where. They’re treacherous beyond belief, vice-ridden beyond redemption".

The above example confirms the main idea of the author of the given literary work about the incompatibility of European and Asian blood, about the different mentality of the West and the East, about oriental treachery and guile.

It is easy to guess why the following proverb becomes the slogan of any person living in this society "a wise man prepares for treachery", which is another example of the above-mentioned "culturally conditioned scenario", the concept of which was introduced by A. Vezhbitskaya. As A. writes Vezhbitskaya: "<...> in different societies and social groups, people speak differently, and this is reflected not only in vocabulary and grammar. These differences form a system and reflect different cultural values, or at least differences in the hierarchy of cultural values"

It is common knowledge that cultural differences are most directly manifested in people's communication and affect their mutual understanding. Insufficient mutual understanding can be generated by the peculiarities of people's daily lives and various social structures, political institutions, economic practices, etc. Psychological factors of their social life play an essential role in the occurrence of communicative failures. In general, psychology is not just a universal and necessary aspect of culture. Its capabilities are used to concretize cognitive, educational, communicative, value, moral, aesthetic and many other aspects of culture. Without a psychological key, cultural and historical reality remains "behind closed doors." Without its use, it is impossible to understand the place and role of a person in the world of culture and history. Each culture has its own psychological charm. A person begins to feel free, realizing himself and perceiving the other as a person, primarily in the psychological sense of the word. Thus, a person of western culture is formed in contrast with his/her social environment. Ultimately, his/her isolated quality is expressed in the individuality of the individual and his/her alienation from society. In the East, a person weaves into the pattern of culture, occupies a certain cell in the social structure, sprouting in it for the benefit of society and merging with it. The difference in the understanding of personality in Eastern (in our case, Japanese) and Western culture cannot but catch the eye. In Japanese culture, there is much less emphasis on the uniqueness and autonomy of the individual. By its orientation, the personality is turned "outward", to other people, to society. Whereas the Western European specifics presupposes the orientation of the personality "inward" – concentration on the inner world of a person. Every "I" in Japanese culture means nothing outside of responsibilities to society: only interaction with other people creates the opportunity to understand one's own "I" and the personality of others. It is very easy to bring Japanese people into an organization expecting group dynamics or for a kindred "dissolving into the crowd." As a rule, individuality is not put forward. There is an old saying in Japan: "A protruding nail will be hammered." European culture, on the contrary, emphasizes the opposition of the "I" to the social environment, paying attention to the individuality, uniqueness and unlikeness of the individual. It is appropriate to use the term "conditioning" here, which implies that certain repetitive patterns of behavior in response to specific processes are so fixed in people’s consciousness that even in their younger years they do not have the freedom to determine their reactions to certain impulses. Conditioning is manifested not only on a personal level, but also on a collective basis. It constantly makes itself felt: on the part of our society with all its rules and morals, on the part of our native language with all its subtleties, on the part of our family situation and, of course, on the part of the climate and the geological zone in which we live. For example, the collective German conditioning lies in the fact that Germans always think they know everything better than representatives of other nationalities. Collective Japanese conditioning makes a Japanese person smile and nod when someone asks him if he understood something, even if he did not understand anything. An example of linguistic conditioning is that in many languages, each noun has a masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. This means that people who speak such a language will never be able to look at things without making reservations. An example of Japanese linguistic conditioning is that Japanese people often avoid using personal pronouns when talking about themselves or their group. This gives them and their friends a sense of solidarity and unity, and again makes it possible not to stand out from the crowd.

Further, returning to the analysis of the verbal work, it should be noted that the novel is full of scenes of cruel tortures and executions of innocent victims, which are an integral feature of the political life of the empire of that period. The grand inquisitors and dictators based their systems of power precisely on boundless cruelty. The personal subtext is always present and the stronger is the subtext, the more carefully they try to disguise it. Real persons act in history, and great events were often planned not in diplomatic halls or on the battlefield, but in boudoirs or at the card table. The Japanese were aware of all the cruel things that were happening to them, calling everything by its proper name, calling a spade a spade. If there is someone who has managed to subjugate others, then he had the right to do so. Natural law. The right of the strong. Those who failed to adequately resist must submit. Everyone has what they deserve, and both embody different manifestations of justice. Power is divine, otherwise how can we explain its existence? The work shows the disenfranchised position of the lower classes and the undivided power of the masters over them. Take, for example, the passage in which, on Toranaga's order, Blackthorne was to master the Japanese language within six months. Otherwise, in case of failure, the entire village was threatened with execution, which even infants would not be able to avoid.

“So I’m trapped again”, Blackthorne said. <…> “If I don’t learn your language then a whole village is butchered. If I don’t do whatever you want, some innocent is always killed. There’s no way out”.

However, Mariko-san sees a way out of this situation in Blackthorne’s committing suicide:

“Seppuku, sometimes called hara-kiri, the ritual suicide by disembowelment, was the only way a samurai could expiate a shame, a sin, or a fault with honor, and was the sole prerogative of the samurai caste. All samurai – women as well as men – were prepared from infancy, either for the act itself or to take part in the ceremony as a second. Women committed seppuku only with a knife in the throat”.

As a historical reference, it is worth mentioning bushido, the name of the chivalric code of the samurai of feudal Japan, which emphasized loyalty, courage, and the preference of death to dishonor. One of the most sensitive places of the human body is the abdominal cavity, as there are a lot of nerve endings in it. Therefore, cutting the abdomen required great courage from a warrior. This painful kind of death was a demonstration of composure, will, devotion to military ideals, contempt for enemies and was a privilege of the samurai. Often, after opening his stomach, a Japanese warrior cut his throat with the same knife in order to die faster. There are cases when samurai disfigured their faces with cold steel before committing suicide, so that enemy soldiers could not use them as their military skills in front of their master and the samurai of their own clan.

Seppuku was also committed if the samurai committed some act unworthy of his honor or for some reason they did not follow the order received from his master and wanted to prevent the punishment that was in store for him, and thus preserve his honor. In this case, suicide was committed at their own discretion or by decision of relatives.

If a samurai was guilty of a crime deserving death, he was allowed to commit suicide himself and thereby atone for the shame and preserve honor. Seppuku simultaneously washed away the shame from his family, and this allowed his sons to inherit their father's name, position and property, otherwise the family would lose both samurai status and possessions. In other words, seppuku was a universal way out of any predicament a samurai found himself in.

Sometimes seppuku was committed in order to protest. It was for this reason that Mariko-san insisted on Blackthorne’s committing seppuku.

Such a solution to the problem at first seems unacceptable to the main character. Here once again there is a conflict between people caused by differences in their culture and worldview:

“There’s a very easy solution, Anjin-san. Die. You do not have to endure the unendurable.”

“Suicide’s crazy – and a mortal sin. I thought you were Christian”.

“I”ve said I am. But for you, Anjin-san, for you there are many ways of dying honorably without suicide. You sneered at my husband for not wanting to die fighting, neh? That’s not our custom, but apparently it’s yours. So why don’t you do that? You have a pistol. Kill Lord Yabu. You believe he’s a monster, neh?

Even attempt to kill him and today you’ll be in heaven or hell.”

<…> He looked at her, hating her serene features, seeing her loveliness through his hate. “It’s weak to die like that for no reason. Stupid’s a better word.”

<…>”Death shouldn’t frighten you. As to ”no reason”, it is up to you to judge the value or nonvalue. You may have reason enough to die”.

The fragment contains a contrast expressed through the oppositional use of the pronouns "you – we", reflecting the ethno-confessional, cultural, historical and geographical differences between the two nations.

Such a willingness to take one's own life has never been understood among Europeans. Many considered this custom barbaric. Western consciousness considers suicide a sin, because life is a gift from God, and a person has no right to reject it. Japanese culture believes that no matter how priceless this gift may be, if a person has brought shame on his life, he should put his own hands to atone for this shame. According to the samurai, to die at the hands of another person would be an even greater shame, because when another person declares him guilty, it is considered an inexcusable interference in the sphere of his life and spirit. In the name of saving his honor, the samurai becomes his own judge and executioner. That last act of purification remains as a memory of his life, restoring the purity of his name. Therefore, even if we are inclined (on the strength of our different cultural background) to consider the values of the samurai to be false, and his devotion to be hypertrophied, let's not forget that when parting with their lives – on the battlefield or by their own hand – the samurai were guided by a sense of duty and honor. Seppuku was also not something special for the wives and daughters of warriors, however, unlike men, women did not cut their stomachs, but only their throats or inflicted a fatal dagger stab in the heart. For a samurai's wife, it was regarded a disgrace not to be able to commit suicide if necessary, so women were also taught the correct execution of suicide, and the most important reasons for it were usually the death of her husband, an insult to self-esteem or the breaking of a vow given to her husband.

Constant wars required a special breed of people to participate in them. It was impossible to combine peaceful labor and daily military arts classes. A man who was born only for war had to have very special ideals formed, serving which he could selflessly fulfill the function assigned to him by society. He had to have special qualities that allowed him to perform this function most effectively. They had no right to choose – they were born in a socio-political environment where the choice was predetermined. Such people were created by the needs of the war. To meet these needs, they created and perfected martial arts, and learned how to kill in cold blood.

Indeed, killing for a samurai is a banality. One of the key words of the novel is the lexeme –“ to kill”:

”They love to kill, Ingeles. It’s their custom even to sleep with their swords. It is a great country, but samurai’re dangerous as vipers and a sight more mean.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know why, Ingeles, but they are,” Rodrigues replied, glad to talk to one of his own kind. “Of course, all Jappos are different from us – they don’t feel pain or cold like us – but samurai are even worse. They fear nothing, least of all death. Why? Only God knows, but it’s the truth. If their superiors say ‘kill’, they kill, ‘die’ and they’ll fall on their swords or slit their own bellies open. They kill and die as easily as we piss. Women’re samurai too, Ingeles. They’ll kill to protect their masters, that’s what they call their husbands here, or they’ll kill themselves if they’re told to. They do it by slitting their throats. Here a samurai can order his wife to kill herself and that’s what she has to do, by law. <…> Samurai’re reptiles and the safest thing to do is treat them like poisonous snakes”.

In the above example, we find repetitions and syntactic parallelism that perform an emphatic function. Also the metaphor ‘reptiles’ is highly expressive and graphic.

Thus, the highest virtue of a samurai is a willingness to die. The second highest virtue is absolute devotion to his master. The code of the samurai says that a warrior is obliged to remain faithful without leaving his master, even when out of a hundred allies, only a dozen loyal friends remain next to him, when out of ten of the most loyal, devoted and tried, only one reliable ally and friend remains. A samurai remains faithful to his master until his death, both in days of prosperity and in days of adversity. The history of Japan is full of examples of such devotion.

In this regard, it is very important to take into account that such a samurai’s vision of the world has deep historical roots. It should be noted that at that time in Japan, along with Buddhist teaching “Zen” there was a native Japanese system of religious beliefs called “Shinto”: "Zen is a sect of Japanese Buddhism, which developed in China from c. 500 CE and spread to Japan c. 1200. The word means “meditation”. Zen differs greatly from traditional Buddhism, rejecting images and ritual, scriptures and metaphysics.

Shinto (“way of the gods”) is the indigenous religion of Japan based on the belief that the royal family was descended from the sun-goddess Amaterasu Omikami. It later absorbed much Buddhist thought and practice. Shinto shrines are plain wooden buildings in which priest and people perform simple rites. Worship of the Emperor and the Zen influence on martial arts resulted in a close connection between Shinto and Japanese militarism"

Confirmation of the mixed religious influence of the above-mentioned sects on the mentality of the samurai is found in the novel:

"<…> “Buddhists should have more tolerance” <…> Zen Buddhism was self-disciplining; it relied heavily on self-help and meditation to find Enlightenment. Most samurai belonged to the Zen Buddhist sect, since it suited, seemed almost to be designed for, a proud, death-seeking warrior".

And further:

"From them on, jealously guarding their rule, the Minowara Shōguns dominated the realm, decreed their Shōgunate hereditary and began to intermarry some of their daughters with the imperial line. The Emperor and the entire Imperial Court were kept completely isolated in walled palaces and gardens in the small enclave at Kyoto, most times in penury, and their activities perpetually confined to observing the rituals of Shinto, the ancient animistic religion of Japan, and to intellectual as pursuits such as calligraphy, painting, philosophy, and poetry".

The belief in the existence of life after death is an integral feature of the most ancient religion.

As A.I. Pigalev notes, the first people were driven by the desire to somehow preserve a deceased relative among the living, to fill the gap that arose in the collective consciousness: “As a result, the dead become spirits, and the burial place itself is an object of worship. But this is impossible without forming the idea that after the physical death of a person, some kind of life still continues – incomprehensible, mysterious, formidable, capable of having a harmful effect on the living, but to which they can sometimes resort”

We find confirmation of this idea in the novel when it comes to the souls of the deceased – “kami”:

"Even though he’s dead, perhaps he’ll know, Blackthorne told himself, perhaps his kami is here now. Shintoists believed that when they died they became a kami…"

In this regard, it is very important to take into account that the words "kami" and "Shinto" have two meanings: exoteric (i.e. publicly available) and esoteric (i.e. meaning understandable only to initiates):

”What is a kami, Mariko-san?”

“Kami is inexplicable, Anjin-san. It is like a spirit but not, like a soul but not. Perhaps it is the insubstantial essence of a thing or a person…you should know a human becomes a kami after death but a tree or rock or plant or painting is equally a kami. Kami are venerated, never worshipped. They exist between heaven and earth and visit this Land of the Gods or leave it, all at the same time.”

“And Shinto? What’s Shinto?”

“Ah, that is inexplicable too, so sorry. It’s like a religion, but isn’t. At first it even had no name – we only called it Shinto, the Way of the Kami, a thousand years ago, to distinguish it from Butsudo, the Way of Buddha. But though it’s indefinable Shinto is the essence of Japan and the Japanese, and though it possesses neither theology nor godhead nor faith nor system of ethics, it is our justification for existence. Shinto is a nature cult of myths and legends in which no one believes wholeheartedly, yet everyone venerates totally. A person is Shinto in the same way he is born Japanese”.

In fact, kami are deities and mythological spirits in Shintoism, which arose from the ancient cult of the spiritualization of nature and the deification of deceased ancestors. In Shintoism, it is believed that a person originates from one of the spirits or gods (kami). However, the concepts of kami and God are inadequate. The concept of kami includes the deities described in Kojiki, who created the world, as well as the deities who live in the souls of people and in every phenomenon and creation of nature. Moreover, every kind of human activity and even objects created by man have their own kami. Every mountain in Japan has its own kami, every water source, rice fields and groves. There are still a lot of special places of worship for kami in Japan today – temples, chapels and altars. Kami worship rituals are an important element of Japan's national culture. How a person treats kami and how well he performs rituals of communication with them depends on the attitude of kami towards a person.

Continuing the analysis of the conflict interaction between the two linguistic cultures, we note that tragic scenes in the novel "Shōgun" take truly ugly forms, especially when depicting murders, crimes or manifestations of cruelty. For example, when Blackthorne jokingly forbids touching a pheasant from which he was going to cook himself a roast, threatening by killing a person who would approach it, the household understands this order literally and takes the life of an old servant who dared to bury a bird’s carcass that began to decompose in the air. This news shocked Blackthorne: "He wept because a good man was dead unnecessarily and because he knew now that he had murdered him. “Lord God forgive me. I’m responsible – not Fujiko. I killed him. I ordered that no one was to touch the pheasant but me. I asked her if everyone understood and she said yes. I ordered it with mock gravity but that doesn’t matter now. I gave the orders, knowing their law and knowing their customs. The old man broke my stupid order so what else could Fujiko-san do? I’m to blame".

This example once again vividly illustrates how contact with a representative of another culture ends in conflict, mutual misunderstanding and a tragic accident. When it comes to an order, the Japanese have no sense of humor. They understand all orders literally and blindly follow them. The real communicative failure occurred due to differences in the worldview formed by different national cultures of communicants. Moreover, the example convinces us of the correctness of the postulate that the communication process is irreversible, and, therefore, it is necessary to be able to anticipate and prevent possible fatal mistakes in intercultural communication.

Nevertheless, for the Japanese, this situation is not murder, in this case, as in many others, death acquires great meaning and wisdom:

”But why didn’t someone ask me first? That pheasant meant nothing to me”.

“The pheasant has nothing to do with it, Anjin-san, she explained. You’re head of a house. The law says no member of your house may disobey you. Old gardener deliberately broke the law. The whole world would fall to pieces if people were allowed to flout the flaw”.

As it can be seen from the example, communicative difficulties in intercultural communication are caused by various components of the cultures involved: the more differences, the more difficult the communication process is. When communicating with a representative of another culture, we cannot predict his behavior based on our own cultural norms and rules. This will inevitably lead to communicative failures. If we want to interact successfully, we must use our knowledge of another culture to make predictions and assumptions. In the absence of such knowledge or if it is insufficient, we have little reason for correct foresight and for adequate communication.

Once again, we emphasize that the system of ideas, which is based on unquestioning obedience, is inherent in all strata of society, even those close to the emperor. The last thought that comes to the mind of a samurai committing suicide is the thought of the need for obedience: "His soul cried out for oblivion. Now so near and easy and honorable. The next life would be better; how could it be worse? Even so, he put down the knife and obeyed, and cast himself back into the abyss of life. His liege lord had ordered the ultimate suffering and had decided to cancel his attempt at peace. What else is there for a samurai but obedience?".

It has already been repeatedly stated above, and it is a key-point idea, that the novel is a hidden juxtaposition of two cultures, two value systems: western and eastern one. And what is completely natural for a Japanese is absolutely unacceptable for a European. As R. Kipling wrote: "The West is the West / The East is the East / And they will not leave their places / Until the terrible Judgment of the Lord comes." (the quotation is borrowed from the article by E.Yu. "Genieva India, my India" / – M.: 1991:6).

The whole novel testifies of the conflict of ideologies, the incompatibility of two cultures, their inevitable clash:

"It must be very difficult for you. Our world is so different from yours. Very different, but very wise".

The novel is riddled with descriptions of the different ideals and religious contradictions prevailing between the two nations and contributing to the emergence of numerous communicative obstacles. Thus, the author emphasizes that love in the Christian sense of the word has no analogue in the Japanese language, as a result of which the effectiveness of communication sharply decreases, leading to misunderstanding between communicants:

”Love is a Christian word, Anjin-san. Love is a Christian thought, a Christian ideal. We have no word for “love” as I understand you to mean it. Duty, loyalty, honor, respect, desire, those words and thoughts are what we have, all that we need”.

Another cross-cultural mistake occurred between the main characters of the novel in the process of their communication, when Mariko-san was unable to understand the love story of Romeo and Juliet cherished by Shakespeare, which was told to her by her European friend. In her opinion, Juliet deserves nothing but condemnation and cruel punishment, because she disobeyed her father.

Undoubtedly, different confessional affiliation creates barriers to effective communication and leads to communicative fiasco. So, Blackthorne is filled with disgust for the sexual habits of the Japanese, for whom sodomy does not go beyond the realm of reason and morally permissible. In a conversation with Mariko-san, he shouts out in indignation: "Sodomy’s a foul sin, an evil, God-cursed abomination, and those bastards who practice it are the dregs of the world!".

However, Mariko-san barely restrains herself from expressing her contempt for him, mentally calling him a barbarian. The simplicity of the Englishman causes her anger and surprise:

"How childish it is, she said to herself, to speak aloud what you think".

As the example shows, the way of thinking and argumentation methods also depend on culture. Logical thinking, according to Aristotle, which prevails in the West, is not shared by representatives of the East. What seems reasonable, logical and self-evident to an Englishman may be unreasonable, illogical or not obvious to a Japanese. When reading the novel under consideration, the reader also encounters one of the phenomena that, due to human nature, inevitably accompanies intercultural relations, this is ethnocentrism – the tendency to consider the norms and values of one's own culture as the basis for evaluating and making judgments about other cultures. Ethnocentrism is one of the serious obstacles to full-fledged intercultural communication, since people blinded by a sense of superiority over others cannot appreciate and understand other cultural values, behavior, and ideas, which means they cannot understand a communication partner. In general, intercultural communication is a culturally conditioned process, all components of which are closely related to the cultural (national) affiliation of the participants in the communication process. Since one person subjectively evaluates another in the context of their cultural experience, manifestations such as ethnocentrism and negative cultural stereotypes can seriously damage intercultural communication. Thus, it is the ethnocentrism of the Japanese that makes Blackthorne be assessed as a barbarian and causes many communicative problems.

The frankness of physiological and sexual activities also never ceases to shock Blackthorne, while the Japanese perceive these processes as an integral and at the same time absolutely natural side of life:

”What’s more normal, Anjin-san? Bodies are normal, and differences between men and women are normal?”

“Yes, but it’s, er, just that we’re trained differently.”

“But now you’re here and our customs are your customs and normal is normal. Neh?

Normal was urinating or defecating in the open if there were no latrines or buckets, just lifting your kimono or parting it and squatting or standing, everyone else politely waiting and not watching, rarely screens for privacy? Why should one require privacy? And soon one of the peasants would gather the feces and mix it with water to fertilize crops. Human manure and urine were the only substantial source of fertilizer in the Empire. There were few horses and bullocks, and no other animal sources at all. So every human particle was harbored and sold to the farmers throughout the land. And after you’ve seen the highborn and the lowborn parting or lifting and standing or squatting, there’s not much left to be embarrassed about".

As we can see from the example, each nation's ideas of decency are so dissimilar that they entail a complete fiasco in communication, preventing the establishment of harmony and mutual understanding. Communicative hindrance results from mutually exclusive, incompatible rules of etiquette of the two cultures, which suggests that they are not marked by a relationship of complementarity, but rather are in an antagonistic relationship.

The insane cruelty prevailing in Japanese society, perceived by any Japanese as the norm of everyday life, is not justified from the point of view of a European and inevitably ends with a number of communicative failures. It is on the cruelty of punishment that the entire legal system of the Japanese is based:

“The Japanese are a simple people. And very severe. They truly have only one punishment – death. By the cross, by strangulation, or by decapitation. For the crime of arson, it is death by burning. They have no other punishment – banishment sometimes, cutting the hair from women sometimes. But <…> most always it is death”.

However, for a Japanese, this state of affairs is not bloodthirstiness, as a European perceives it, but an absolutely normal way to establish public order. It seems that such type of philosophical views with a call for obedience, perseverance, and moral improvement was convenient for the top of society.

"Karma is the beginning of knowledge. Next is patience. Patience is very important. The strong are the patient ones. Patience means holding back your inclination to the seven emotions: hate, adoration, joy, anxiety, anger, grief, fear. If you don’t give way to the seven, you’re patient, then you’ll soon understand all manner of things and be in harmony with Eternity".

Further, we come across analogy and contrast – the principles on which structural cohesion is built. Death and life are actually one: "…death and life are the same thing. This is the immutable law of nature".

According to the Japanese, life can end at any minute, and therefore there is no future:

“Today you're here and nothing you can do will change that. Today you're alive and here and honored, and blessed with good fortune. Look at this sunset, it’s beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity”.

The Japanese proverb reflects the same mentality: “A man’s fate is a man’s fate and life is but an illusion”. It should be noted that linguistic creativity of a nation, its mentality manifest itself predominantly in proverbs and sayings. The national history, social system, way of life, and worldview are not so pretty crystallized as in sayings and proverbs. Thus, John Blackthorne gradually assimilates in the new environment, masters the language code and even receives the title of samurai in recognition of his decision to commit suicide under the threat of destruction of an entire village of civilians for his inability to learn the Japanese language in the shortest possible time. Cultural shock is gradually replaced by acculturation, the main character gets better and better oriented in a new coordinate system each time and begins to understand much of what was beyond his understanding at the beginning of interaction with representatives of the Japanese linguistic and cultural community. Thus, John Blackthorne's multicultural linguistic personality is gradually being formed, freely participating in intercultural communication. The number of communicative errors is noticeably reduced, and a natural bilingual develops skills for an effective participation in a foreign language communication, thanks to which mutual understanding between representatives of different nationalities becomes a reality.

In conclusion, it should be noted that recently, it is not by chance at all, due to the constant expansion of international contacts, the expediency of developing intercultural competence is increasingly emphasized, since when learning a foreign language, in order to avoid communicative failures, it is important not only to correctly understand what is being said, but also to possess speech techniques and background historical and cultural knowledge, so familiar to native speakers. In order for intercultural interaction to be effective and not conflict-based, one should learn to get used to another's culture, master the ability to look at the world through its eyes. In order to achieve the communicative optimum of discourse, it is not enough to master one language code, it is necessary to overcome ethno-confessional barriers. In a new, multicultural situation, when, due to the forced or voluntary movement of heroes from one country to another and transitivity turning into a constant characteristic of human life of a person of that era, many phenomena of fusion and hybridization of cultural, religious, national and gender parameters of human existence arise. In fact, the analyzed novel is a multicultural text, i.e. a collection of opposing discourses that are associated with conflicts that extend far beyond the text. The characters of this work in the knowledge and affirmation of the new world go through a kind of initiation in an unusual cultural ambiance, which at the initial stage is inevitably accompanied by communicative failures. In the new conditions, they turn into so-called "cultural mestizos", at the same time, realizing the incompatibility of the genetic code of which they are carriers with newly acquired habits and stereotypes.