Discursive space of Jorge Amado’s novels “The Disappearance of the Saint” and “Gabriela, Carne and Cinnamon”

Abstract

The article examines the discursive space of the novels “The War of the Saints” and “Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon” by Jorge Amado. We consider speech activity to be a discourse as both the text generation process and the result of this speech activity are the text itself. The ambivalent understanding of discourse in modern linguistics reflects the complexity of studying this phenomenon, since there are a number of scientific trends interpreting its essence in different ways. The article studies the discursive space of literary texts as a complex system of discourse pieces, which is determined by the discursive personality of the author. The discursive personality of the author of these novels expresses his own system of attitudes through the creation of fictional texts, while simultaneously representing the system of axiological values of the multinational population of Brazil. The discursive personality determines the representation of the diversity of worldview contradictions and creates a fictional text, counting on creative cooperation with the reader. The discursive space of J. Amado’s novels is structured by a special chronotope, directly related to the literary trend of magical realism, within which descriptions of real social contradictions, life situations and unreal mystical events are bizarrely combined. The extralinguistic factors are of particular importance, being associated with the description of the Candomble religious cult, which is a symbol of ethnic identity.