The image of New York in the novel "Summer and the City" by C. Bushnell

Abstract

Modern linguistic studies investigate the notion of "image" from different approaches: as a product of the author’s and reader’s perception of a certain imaginative object, as a philosophical construct that has historical and cultural bases. The variety of interpretations of this term is determined by its use in different scientific paradigms, including philosophy, psychology, art, literature, and linguistics. According to the aspect of research one differentiates “image”, “artistic image”, “verbal image”, “verbal-poetic image”. It is important that in the literary text, not only the characters are considered to be images, but also inanimate objects, weather symbols, abstract concepts, that is, each element of the text to which a figurative image is applied. In different times and epochs, the image of New-York attracted the attention of writers, politicians, literary critics and outstanding personalities. Scientists researched the associative fields for the creation of images of the macro-urbanonym New-York City, taking into account mytho-epic and cultural-historical factors (E. Mitkina, O. Mardarenko), the poetics of the image of New York in the novels of the 20–80s (D. Boklah).The works of famous English-language authors revealed opinions concerning the image of New York in different social and cultural periods of the US development. In the focus of our study there is the novel “Summer and the City” written by a contemporary writer Candice Bushnell. The purpose of the article is to determine the peculiarities of the realization of the image of New York in Candice Bushnell’s novel “Summer and the City”. While researching the novel, a complex analysis involving various methods was carried out: interpretive and textual analysis helped to decode implicit meanings that realize the image of the city in certain contexts, semantic analysis made it possible to reveal the semantics of linguistic units that imply certain characteristics of New York, owning to linguistic and stylistic analysis tropes and figures of speech that reveal specific features of the city in this text were identified. Novelty of the research lies in the identification of the peculiarities of the realization of New York image in C. Bushnell’s novel "Summer and the City" for the first time. Conclusions. Identified in the novel lexemes realize mostly negative image of New York. Stylistic tropes (metaphor, metonymy, simile), intertextual elements, internal monologues of the heroine imply the image of the city in the novel.