Multimodality of a precedent text in the research of the cultural space of a literary text

Abstract

The article aims to describe the phenomenon of “precedence” in its multimodal specificity, which is realized in the process of recreating cultural space in a literary text. The authors rely on the achievements of modern linguocultural studies of the relationship between language and culture, which focus on the consideration of paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations of linguistic units, modelling the cultural space in the texts. At the same time, the possibility of realization by language units of their semiotic nature is taken into account, the peculiarities of its manifestation are determined by this or that context in the structure of precedent texts. The novelty of the research lies in the application of the theory of multimodality to the study of the precedent text as an element of cultural space in a literary text. One of the main questions is which units of a precedent text create prerequisites for its multimodality and how these units are interconnected with each other. Taking into account the denotative meaning of lexical units that verbalize the “channel” of information transmission and the recipient’s perception of this information, we can identify in the empirical material explicit and implicit ways of implementing the multimodality of precedent texts. The results of the analysis of the key lexemes of precedent texts served as the basis for characterizing multimodality, they are descriptive and were obtained with the help of comparative method, as well as the method of semantic, contextual and linguocultural analysis. The article suggests the multimodality of the precedent text not only contributes to the transmission of additional culturally significant information, due to which the cultural space in the literary text is modelled, but also allows the literary text itself to reveal its multimodal character. The material for the study is the novels “Der Weltensammler” by I. Trojanow, “1913: Der Sommer des Jahrhunderts” by F. Illias, and “Tyll” by D. Kehlmann, whose plots are set against the background of culturally significant historical events.