VERBALIZATION OF CONCEPT FEAR IN EDGAR ALLAN POE’S STORIES

Abstract

The article studies the means of concept FEAR verbalization in gothic stories by Edgar Allan Poe. This concept is a key one in the author’s conceptual sphere since the gothic style, in which Poe wrote most of his stories, aims at creating an atmosphere of horror and evoking a feeling of fear in the readership. The research underlines the importance of studying concepts when the ultimate goal of the research is to reveal the specificity of the author’s world perception and its reflection in the author’s literary works. The article proposes the definition to the term “concept” and singles out the main actualizers of concepts. Thus, the term “concept” is defined as a certain view on a fragment of the world or part of this fragment which has a complex structure expressed through different characteristics and realized through various language means. The study of Edgar Poe’s conceptual sphere proves that the most vivid concepts in it are the ones which were formed on the basis of the writer’s personal experience. He had to deal with the early death of his parents, his foster mother and his young wife, which undoubtedly had an adverse effect on the writer’s world perception and his literary works. FEAR became the result of the grief he had to overcome and, therefore, it is evident that the concepts FEAR and DEATH are closely interconnected in the author’s conceptual sphere. The research shows that the concept FEAR is verbalized in Poe’s stories through different means, viz. direct nominations, metaphors, epithets, similes, antitheses, paraphrases, etc. Some examples prove the abovementioned connection between the concepts FEAR and DEATH. All in all, the article proposes the methodology which can be used in the analysis of other concepts in Poe’s conceptual sphere as well as in the analysis of other authors’ individual pictures of the world.