LINGUOSTYLISTIC PECULIARITIES OF PORTRAIT DESCRIPTIONS IN THE NOVELS BY JANE AUSTEN

Abstract

The article describes linguo-stylistic means of creation of portrait descriptions in the literary works by an English novelist Jane Austen. Literary portraits are taken from such well-known novels as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma”. Portrait characterization includes description of outward appearance (a person’s physique, physiognomy, gestures and movements of different parts of a person’s body, gait and manner of walking, general and specific posture, carriage, voice and manner of speaking), psychological portrayal and typical behaviour of a character (personal qualities and features of character, feelings and emotions, drives and motives, mood, intellectual processes, outlook, knowledge, intuition, imagination, conscience), things that belong to characters and are important for them. The article provides the results of the analysis of literary portraits from the point of view of their typological characteristics (dresscentric, colourcentric, charactercentric) and peculiarities of the language. Examination of principal and secondary means of portraiture of characters in the novels by Jane Austen led us to the conclusion that she is a master of characterization. Portrait descriptions in the novels “Pride and Prejudice” and “Emma” are created with the help of such stylistic devices and expressive means as epithet, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, simile, antithesis, parallel constructions, repetitions of different types. Individual stylistic manner of Jane Austen is determined by creative search of imaginative models of expression and their textual representation. Interaction of stylistic devices of different levels provides vividness and clarity of portrait descriptions, enables their impact on the reader. The results of the research activity have practical applications in such courses as philological textual interpretation of a work of fiction, stylistics, text and discourse studies.