Article

Name: Derivative modelling of genre (on the example of a legal triller)

Authors: O. N. Zherdeva, E. A. Savochkina

Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Barnaul, Russian Federation; Altai State University, Barnaul, Russian Federation

In the section Study of literature

Abstract: The paper deals with system-structural and historical-theoretical approaches to the study of the system of the genres of literature. Basing on the historical-theoretical approach, permitting one to embed a genre into its epoch with its target reader, the author proposes a model of derivation of legal thriller genre within the paradigm of mass literature. The derivation theory enables one to look into the mechanisms behind formation of secondary units and to understand them, to investigate the nature of the relationship between these secondary units and the ones that can be regarded as primary to them. First of all, we consider the form of the genre as a mutual component for both detective story and thriller. As for the content of both creates the distance differentiating detective story from thriller. The main formal and content characteristics which have been proved to pertain to both detective story and thriller are the following: key antagonists in the plot; one of the antagonists being after the other; thrilling plot and dynamic narration. The genres of detective and thriller are proved to share common characteristics of adventure literature. The detective and the criminal are viewed upon as key antagonists present in detective stories as well as thrillers, the detective being after the criminal. The first step to establish the derivational link between the genres discussed is to determine the primary and the secondary one. This work is of an inductive character. Since we know the detective story to historically appear before thriller, we take it to be the preliminary unit of derivational process. The paper considers thriller as derivative from the genre of detective when the content of the latter is modified through changes in expression on the non-linear stage of text creation – antagonists and setting are changed – while preserving expressive means on the linear stage (common genre pertaining plot development). The legal thriller is stated as a separate genre on the basis of its content – the antagonists meet in the courtroom – when formal features of the genre of detective (tense and dynamic narration) are still preserved. The paper offers a definition of the legal thriller and discusses its genre structure.

Keywords: derivation, stage of derivation, chain of derivation, derivational textology

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