ФРАКТАЛЬНАЯ МОДЕЛЬ САМООРГАНИЗАЦИИ ТЕКСТОВОГО ПРОСТРАНСТВА СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКОЙ КОНВЕРГЕНЦИИ КАК «КЛЮЧ» К ЕГО ПОНИМАНИЮ

Any literary work is unique because it has a potential infinity of contents. The produced text is the final chain of its creation and the beginning of what the explorer or the reader starts his work with [4, p. 147]. The main function of the belles-lettres style is called “aesthetic-cognitive” aiming at the cognitive process, “which secures the gradual unfolding of the idea to the reader and at the same time calls forth a feeling of pleasure, a pleasure which is derived from the form in which the content is wrought” [9, p. 255]. The methodological basis of the text analysis is the principle of the dialectical unity of the form and the content of any work of speech. This fact requires revealing the way how the content is organized, which means revealing the structure of the text during the stylistic analysis [6, p. 35]. “Nothing gives more pleasure and satisfaction than realizing that one has the ability to penetrate into the hidden tissue of events, phenomena and human activity, and to perceive the relation between various seemingly unconnected facts brought together by the creative mind of the writer” [9, p. 255].  

 A literary work is not spontaneous, it is well prepared and organized, as a result, everything in it carries a certain amount of information. The textual structure transfers something general of the meaning of the text. It is an icon sign of the content (iconic signs are characterized by similarity of the form and the denotated object/phenomenon [4, p. 11]). The form of this sign can be considered as the content scheme projection, the “shadow” of the meaning of the text [4, p. 132]. While interpreting the text the reader moves from “shadow” to ‘light”, coordinating the first with the latter and uniting them into a single whole. “The reader  is led to form his own conclusion as to the purpose of the author” [9, p. 255]. The maximum freedom from the form should be achieved in this movement, though that freedom should not be transformed into arbitrary treatment to the literary work. It means the interpretation should be correlated with those restrictions conditioned by the structure of the text [4, p. 132]. In this connection we would like to quote a famous writer
U. Eco, who says, that such restrictions allow the interpreter to invent freely [2, p. 439]. The purpose of the reader is not to prove, but only to suggest a possible interpretation of the phenomena of life, to see the viewpoint of the writer [9, p. 256].

From all this it follows, therefore, that the interpretation of the text cannot be successful without revealing the main forms and types of speech utterances, their structural-stylistic peculiarities, the way how the elements of the text are connected and interrelated depending on the contexts and situations.  It is necessary to take into consideration the correlation of logical, psychological and linguistic aspects.  One cannot be limited by studying only linguistic means though they are of great importance, because the text is created to express thoughts and not for the purpose just to use  certain words or stylistic devices [6, p. 4].

According to linguo-synergetic approach the formal organization of the text can be represented as a synergetic mechanism and the discourse space is organized according to the fractal principle. Fractals are understood as objects which have the property of self-likeness and scale invariance. The change of objects is observed but in the frames of a certain integrity of the phenomenon [5, p. 16]. Fractals become the instrument of conquering the chaos, the instrument of discovering the future system in amorphous, formless chaos [8, p. 128]. The dynamic symmetry is the basis of the fractal structure organization which provides the growth and development [7, p.  68]. The text, being a part of the discourse, is characterized by fractality because the meaning of one sentence may include the meaning of the previous text, summing it up or representing the scheme of the future development of the plot [7, p. 69].

The aim of this article is to demonstrate the role of revealing the fractal self-organization model of contexts with stylistic convergence for better understanding the literary work content.

In the light of decoding stylistics a convergence of stylistic devices fulfilling the same stylistic function in a context is considered to be one of the types of foregrounding. By foregrounding the scientist means a way of formal organization of the text, which focuses the reader’s attention on important elements of the message and  establishes semantically relevant relations between the elements of the same or different levels [1, p. 99-100].

Linguo-synergetic approach to the context with stylistic convergence allows us to consider it as the textual space consisting of a number fractals the regulation of which is carried out with the help of fractal self-organization models. It seems reasonable to regard the convergence of stylistic devices as a combination of semantically self-like objects (fractals) [3, p. 129-132]. In the light of what has been said, the revealing of the fractal models of the textual space in the process of interpretation means perceiving the relation between the form and the content.

The object of our study is the stylistic convergence in the poem “No Road” written by the British poet Philip Larkin. In the first stanza of the poem the hero is speaking to his former beloved:

Since we agreed to let the road between us / Fall to disuse, / And bricked our gates up, planted trees to screen us, / And turned all time’s eroding agents loose, / Silence, and space, and strangers – our neglect / Has not had much effect [11, p. 18].

The architectonic basis of the stanza is that of the defeated expectancy, which results from the violation of the logical succession. Gradual increase of alienation between former lovers is represented by two cases of climax (gradation) defined as “an arrangement of sentences or homogeneous parts of one sentence which secures a gradual increase in significance, importance, or emotional tension in the utterance” [9, p. 219]. Each successive unit in climax is perceived as stronger than the previous one: to let the road fall to disuse, bricked gates up, planted trees to screen us, turned all time’s eroding agents loose. Gradation converges with a sustained metaphor. An image of the road is created by the central metaphor: when love was blossoming, the road was in a perfect state, after the dates had stopped, it began to be overgrown with grass and soon it can disappear [10, p. 18]. The other metaphors bearing reference to the central image create contributory images supplementing each other: bricked gates up, planted trees, turned eroding agents loose.

Another gradation (climax) characterizing the relations of the former couple includes the words silence, space, strangers – the attributes of time which destroy the relations (silence – condition of not speaking, period of saying nothing; space – interval or distance between two or more objects;  strangers – people who appear in the life of the parted people that are not common acquaintance [10, p. 19]). Climax is a means by which the poet discloses his attitude towards the things described. The important factor is the intensification of the expectancy before the appearance of the element of small predictability: our neglect / Has not had much effect. The end of the stanza  defeats the reader’s expectations.

The location of the stylistic devices in the first stanza can be represented by a fractal self-organization model “a mountain”, where semantic fractals (stylistic devices) are located in the ascending order and they look like a number of steps leading to “the peak of the mountain”. The appearance of the unpredictable element in the last line of the stanza reminds us a kind of a fall down “the peak of that mountain”.

On the lexical level the effect of the defeated expectancy is achieved by the usage of the device called “bathos” (the intentional mixing of the stylistic aspect of words): after the word neglect, which has emotive connotation, Larkin uses the expression  Has not had much effect, which is more suitable for the official style. This produces an effect of incongruity. The fractal model “a mountain” illustrates the pattern of filling the textual stylistic convergence space with fractals. Revealing the fractal model contributes to decoding the content:  all the attempts (steps) of the former lovers turn out to be vain. The reader’s expectations are defeated.

Now let us analyze the stylistic convergence in the last stanza of the poem: Drafting a world where no such road will run / from you to me; / To watch that world come up like a cold sun, / Rewarding others, is my liberty. / Not to prevent it is my will’s fulfillment. / Willing it, my ailment [11, p. 18].

The hero approves that his choice – not to prevent the new life – was rather deliberate and he seems to be satisfied with it [10, p. 19]. The new world he compares with a cold sun. The textual space of the stanza is filled according to the principle of epiphora – the semantic fractals (stylistic devices) are located in the end of every successive sentence. Every next semantic fractal is a kind of a new step to “the peak of the mountain” adding something to the description of the “new world”: a cold sun, my liberty, my will’s fulfilment. But then the stereotype of the reader’s perception is violated –the hero calls willing the new world ‘an ailment’. Antithesis in the last lines Not to prevent it is my will’s fulfilment. / Willing it, my ailment and not full rhyme (In  fulfillment - ailment “fil” does not quite rhyme with phonetically long-draw-out “ail”) reflect the inner disharmony of the hero and produce the effect of defeated expectancy. “The failure of the narrator, his emotional illness, is given this slight emphasis by the “failure” of the rhyme. The effect would be lost if the ear was not already accustomed to full rhymes” [10, p. 38]. The additional meaning carried by the fractal self-organizing model “a mountain”, revealed in this stanza, can be decoded in the following way: the hero seems to be glad because he is free, but suddenly, he appears to be hesitating, realizes that willing loneliness and inner coldness must be his illness. 

The analysis of the contexts with stylistic convergence in the aspect of linguo-synergetics reveals the location of the semantic fractals (stylistic devices) and their regulation which contribute to decoding the content. A fractal self-organizing model is a kind of a “key” to interpretation. The revealed fractal model “a mountain” according to which the textual stylistic convergence space in the poem “No Road” is built bears the information of unexpectedness, collapse, something stunning, when the reader’s expectancy is defeated.