Article

Name: Topoi Realized in Text: Linguistic Mechanism of Isotopy

Authors: Z. A. Igina

Nizhyn Gogol State University

Abstract: The article is dedicated to studying isotopy as a linguistic mechanism of realizing topoi in text, namely a Gothic microstory by T. Ligotti from «Selection of Poe». The analysis is based on Greimassian structural methodology, reconsidered by U. Eco. Consequently, it is stated that isotopy is a homogenous linguistic realization of a certain topos (or topoi) in text. Topos is an argumentation-verification scheme of some structural-thematic pattern in text, where the latter is treated as communicative space inhabited by communicative agents, inter alia, narrative authorities. Topos has an abstract speculative meaning and can be recognized by its formal textual realization.

Keywords: isotopy, context, seme, text, topos

Bibliography:

Aristotle. Kategorii [Categories]. Aristotle. Sochineniya [Aristotle. Writings]: In 4 vols. A. V. Kubickiy (transl.). Moscow, 1978b, vol. 2, p. 51–91.

Aristotle. Metafizika [Metaphysics]. Aristotle. Metafizika. Perevody. Kommentarii. Tolkovanija [Aristotle. Metaphysics. Translations. Commentaries. Interpretations]. A. V. Kubickiy (transl.). St. Petersburg, Kiev, 2002, p. 29–475.

Aristotle. Ritorika [Rhetoric]. O. P. Cybenko (transl.). Moscow, 2000.

Aristotle. Topika [Topic]. Aristotle. Sochineniya [Aristotle. Writings]: In 4 vols. Z. N. Mikeladze (ed.). Moscow, 1978a, vol. 2, p. 347–553.

Birkhead E. The Tale of Terror. Charleston, SC: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008.

Blair D. Introduction. Gothic Short Stories. Ware, Hertfordshire, Wordsworth Editions, 2002, p. 8–27.

Botting F. Gothic. New York, Routledge, 2005.

Bol'shoj tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Large definition dictionary of Russian language]. S. A. Kuznecov (ed.). St. Petersburg, 2000.

Cicero. Topika [Topic]. Estetika: traktaty, rechi, pis'ma [Esthetics: treatises, speeches, letters]. A. E. Kuznecov (transl.). Moscow, 1994, p. 56–81.

Compagnon A. Demon teorii: literatura i zdravyj smysl [Demon of the theory: literature and common sense]. S. Zenkin (transl.). Moscow, 2001.

Curtius E. R. European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages. W. R. Trask (transl.). New York, Bollingen Foundation Inc., 1953.

Danto A. Analiticheskaja filosofija istorii [Analytical philosophy of history]. A. L. Nikiforov, O. V. Gavrishina (transl.). Moscow, 2002.

Eco U. Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language. T. A. Sebeok (ed.). Translation from Italian. Houndmills. Basingstoke. London, The Macmillan Press Ltd, 1984.

Genette G. Figury [Figures]. E. Vasil'eva, E. Gal'cova, E. Grechana, I. Itkin, S. Zenkin, N. Percov, I. Staf, G. Shumilova (trasl.). Moscow, 1998, vol. 2.

Greimas A.-J. On Meaning. New Literary History. P. Perron, F. Collins (transl.), 1989, vol. 20, no. 3, p. 539–551.

Greimas A.-J. Strukturnaja semantika: poisk metoda [Structural semantics: search of the method]. L. Zimina (transl.). Moscow, 2004.

Grechesko-russkij i russko-grecheskij slovar' [Greek – Russian and Russian – Greek dictionary]. A. V. Sal'nova (comp.). Moscow, 2000.

Ligotti T. A Selection of Poe. Fantasy and Terror, 1985, no. 6, p. 20–24.

Mahov A. E. Topos [Topos]. Pojetika: slovar' aktual'nyh terminov i ponjatij [Poetics: dictionary of topical terms and concepts]. Moscow, 2008, p. 264–266.

Novogrechesko-russkij slovar' [Greek – Russian dictionary]. I. P. Horikov, M. G. Malev (comp.). Moscow, 1980.

Oxford Dictionary of English. A. Stevenson (ed.). Oxford, OUP, 2010.

Prince G. Notes on the Categories ‘Topos’ and ‘Disnarrated’. Thematics Reconsidered. Essays in Honor of Horst S. Daemmrich. Amsterdam, Atlanta, Rodopi, 1995. P. 127–133.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Harold Edgeworth Butler (trasl.). Harvard University Press, 1989, vol. 1.

Schmid W. Narratology: An Introduction. Alexander Starritt (trasl.). Berlin, New York, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2010.

Silantev I. V. Motiv kak problema narratologii [Motive as a problem of naratology]. Kritika i semiotika [Critique and semiotics], 2002, no. 5, p. 32–60.

Slovar' lingvisticheskih terminov [Dictionary of linguistic terms]. O. S. Akhmanova (comp.). Moscow, 1969.

Tolkovyj slovar' russkogo jazyka [Definition dictionary of Russian language]. D. V. Dmitriev (ed.). Moscow, 2003.