A leit-motif of dissection and a structure of the whole. On two “Footballs”
https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2019-6-216-228
Abstract
The article shows that in “Football” the motif of dissection is not restricted by the plot about Judith and Holofernes. It is a key leit-motif that is realized at different levels of the text. This concerns the structure of single words, “chopping off” the plot, correlation of images, etc. The football game is used by Mandelstam as an object with a structural dualism, primordially inherent to it. This includes the division into two teams, double word “football” and the significancy of two languages at once (in connection with English origin of the game and its title). The author finds a series of Russian-English bilingual puns including those that realize the motif of chopping off. The relevant phenomena are traced in “The Second Football”. There the text through its length is dominated by wholeness of the double elements, but it ends with a hint of decapitation.
About the Author
O. B. Zaslavskii
V. N. Karazin Kharkov National University
Ukraine
Ukraine
Oleg B. Zaslavskii, Dr. of Sci. (Physics and Mathematics), bld. 4 Svoboda Square,
Kharkov, Ukraine, 61022
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Review
For citations:
Zaslavskii O.B. A leit-motif of dissection and a structure of the whole. On two “Footballs”. RSUH/RGGU Bulletin: “Literary Teory. Linguistics. Cultural Studies”, Series. 2019;(6(2)):216-228. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2686-7249-2019-6-216-228
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