  kurnikova_ns_zasetckova_en-vestnik-2023-4-ru.pdf |
- 13
- Stylistic peculiarities of Edgar Poe’s and Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s gothic novellas
- Kurnikova N.S., Zasetskova E.N. Stylistic peculiarities of Edgar Poe’s and Howard Phillips Lovecraft’s gothic novellas. Vestnik of Kostroma State University, 2023, vol. 29, No. 4, pp. 92–97 (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2023-29-4-92-97
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.34216/1998-0817-2023-29-4-92-97
- УДК: 821(73).09”20”
- EDN: PQZPGC
- Publish date: 2023-10-27
- Annotation: The article deals with the comparative analysis of stylistic features of selected short stories (novellas) by the American writers Edgar Poe and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Using a set of methods (theoretical analysis, holistic text analysis, stylistic analysis), relying on the creative manifestos of the two authors, as well as on the results of stylistic analysis of the corpus of short stories, the authors of the article trace the continuity and distinctive features in the work of the two writers. The obtained results allow to state the presence of similar features in the short stories of Edgar Poe and Howard Lovecraft, such as gothic chronotope, mystical and fantastic elements, common type of narrator, characterised by a borderline state, and deliberate fear-mongering. At the same time, however, the texts of both authors demonstrate specific features. Poe’s Gothic novellas are characterised by increased psychologism, which manifests itself in the prevalence of such stylistic devices as repetition, gradation, aposiopeisis, rhetorical question and exclamation, which eloquently testify to the “inner horrorˮ of the characters. The high allusiveness of Poe’s short stories testifies to the close connection of the described events with reality. The prevailing stylistic devices of Lovecraft’s novellas (epithets, personifications) testify to the author’s attempt to breathe life into inanimate objects, to extract them from non-existence, and to make the reader experience a “cosmicˮ horror of the unknown and external. The author’s complicated syntax combined with irrational enumerative rows suggests that Lovecraft’s work might be influenced by modernist aesthetics.
- Keywords: Edgar Poe, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Gothic literature, Gothic novella, horror literature, stylistic features
- Literature list: Balditsyn P.V. Razvitie amerikanskoi novelly. O'Genri. Istoriia literatury SShA, t. 5 [The development of the American short story. O'Henry. History of Literature of the USA, vol. 5]. URL: http:// american-lit.niv.ru/american-lit/istoriya-literatury-ssha-5/baldicyn-o-genri-1.htm (access date: 10.08.2023). (In Russ.) Garashina E.M. Goticheskii roman v angliiskoi literature XVIII-XIX vv. [The Gothic novel in 18th and 19th century English literature]. Vestnik universiteta im. A. Nobelya [Bulletin of Alfred Nobel University], 2020, No. 1 (19), pp. 142-149. (In Russ.) Bol'shaia rossiiskaia entsiklopediia [Big Russian Encyclopedia], ed. by S.L. Kravets. URL: https://bigenc.ru/c/goticheskii-roman-fa3718 (access date: 10.08.2023). (In Russ.) Lavkraft G.F. Sverkh"estestvennyi uzhas v literature [Supernatural horror in literature]. URL: http://www.lib.ru/INOFANT/LAWKRAFT/sverhestestvennyj_uzhas_v_literature.txt (access date: 10.08.2023). (In Russ.) Morshchinskii V.S., Cheresiuk P.A. Osobennosti prelomleniia goticheskoi traditsii v tvorchestve G.F. Lavkrafta (na materiale rasskaza «Izgoi») [Features of the refraction of the Gothic tradition in the works of G. F. Lovecraft (on the material of the story ‟Outcast”)]. Filologicheskie nauki. Voprosy teorii i praktiki [Philological sciences. Theoretical and practical issues], 2022, vol. 15, iss. 7, pp. 2149-2153. (In Russ.) Po E.A. Filosofiia tvorchestva [The philosophy of composition]. URL: http://www.lib.ru/INOFANT/POE/poe1_3.txt (access date: 10.08.2023). (In Russ.) Lovecraft H.P. Memory. URL: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/m.aspx (access date: 07.08.2023). Lovecraft H.P. Nyarlathotep. URL: https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/n.aspx (access date: 07.08.2023). Poe E.A. The Fall of the House of Usher. URL: http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Usher.pdf (access date: 27.08.2023). Poe E.A. The Tell-Tale Heart. URL: http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Poe/Tell-Tale_Heart.pdf (access date: 07.08.2023).