The modern literary prose in professional media criticism: Pragmastilistic analysis

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification and pragmastilistic characterization of the means of evaluating the interpretation of works of modern fiction by the authors of reviews and articles presented in the media content of the electronic literary magazine “Literratura” under the heading “Criticism” over the past three years. The purpose of the study is to analyze the evaluative judgments of critics based on a pragmaesthetic approach to discourse, i. e. taking into account the pragmatic attitude of the addressee of speech. Under the influence of the chosen role of the subject of critical discourse (“analyst” or “reader”), it can be dominated either by style standards objectified in line with the canonical genre of the review, or by subjective-evaluative ways of conceptualizing the reviewed work. It is established that modern professional media criticism is distinguished by intellectualized forms of evaluation, which manifest themselves in intertextuality, sensual metaphors and periphrases. In this case, the transfer of the critic’s attitude to the reviewed work is mainly implicit. The fact of the influence of “new Russian prose” on the style of the reviewer’s narration, which often imitates the author’s manner of creating a “second reality” and has pragmaesthetic effect, is revealed. The important feature of critical discourse, which brings it closer to blogistics in the case of choosing the position of the “reader”, is the transfer of the reader’s reflection of the subject of evaluation, acting in egocentric plane and not hiding subjectivism. At the level of verbal representation of the assessment, we can talk about the interaction of scientific, literary, artistic and colloquial discourses, about decrease in the stylistic register during irony, as well as due to professional jargonisms and colloquial forms that increase the degree of emotionality of critical media discourse.