COGNITIVE FOUNDATIONS OF IMPLEMENTING NOVEL GENRE CHARACTERISTICS (based on the analysis of “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro)

Abstract

The article analyses the role of chronotope in implementing genre characteristics of different types of novels within the frame of one novel in a cognitive approach perspective. The authors proceed from the theoretical assumption that the content of any novel represents a multidimensional knowledge of the matrix format comprising various types of conceptual domains as specific cognitive contexts. These contexts refer to the knowledge not only about the plot and the composition of the novel, but also about its genre characteristics and their individual interpretation by the author of the novel. Accordingly, they choose cognitive matrix analysis as the methodological basis of the research. Particular attention is focused on the analysis of general principles and mechanisms of the author's individual interpretation and implementation of the concept of chronotope, suggested by M.M. Bakhtin, within the framework of a specific novel. In relation to the novel under discussion the authors of the article model chronotope in the form of the cognitive matrix SPACE-TIME CONTINUUM and analyze its conceptual structure as it is seen by the author of the novel, as well as his choice of means of its representation in language. The results of the cognitive matrix and linguistic analysis lead to the conclusion that typical genre features of the novel are implemented through characteristics of the basic concepts of the respective conceptual domains and means of their linguistic representation. The article also argues close relationship between all of these characteristics and the dominant role of some of them in relation to the others.