SPATIAL IMAGERY IN ELEANOR PORTER’S NOVEL “THE SUNBRIDGE GIRLS AT SIX STAR RANCH”

Abstract

The article is devoted to the complex study of space images in the novels by E. Porter “The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch”. The work analyzes the meanings of “topos”, “locus” in the context of modern scientific discourse, actualizes the problem of the selected forms and ideas of the textual organization of the artistic space, the model of which in literary work depend on historical and cultural conditionals, aesthetic believes, influence on the formation of individual author’s style. The author of the article revealed and commented on the specifics of space images using achievements of the biographical method and the elements of the hermeneutic approach to the analysis of the text; the structure and meaning of the unity of the artistic space in the text of the novel are assigned; analyzed the implementation of author’s intentions. On the basis of research, it was determined that the model of artistic space in the novel by E. Porter was inspired as a collection of descriptions of natural landscapes, places in the United States in New England and the state of Texas. The concept of “water” was designated as one of the key ones in the text, revealed its cultural and historical, ideological interest, meaning, compositional significance. The topos of cities, prairies, and local locus, playing a significant role in the plot architectonics of the novel, are analyzed. It has been shown that the lexical-semantic world of such cities, like San Antonio, New Orleans, was created with the help of topographic locus (Alamo Fortress, San Fernando Cathedral, Latin and French Quarters).The examples of geographic names (toponyms, hydrononyms) have been introduced marking time space and the plot of the novel. The driving force of this novel is the motive of traveling. It has been stated that the topos of the place in the artistic text is the bearer of the sacral consciousness. It organically unites the present and the past identifying the mentality. The locus of the city create verbal pictures of cultural life showing its contradictions, against the background of which the spiritual growth of the characters of the work takes place.