Verbalization of the spatial model of the world in modern Russian and English women’s prose (based on the works of A. Matveeva and E. Gilbert)

The article analyzes the explication of the spatial model of the world in modern women’s fictional discourse. The focus of attention is on the ways of constructing space and their linguistic representation in the works of A. Matveeva and E. Gilbert, modern women authors of Russian and English literature. A comparative analysis of the two pieces of discourse helps to reveal the individual characteristics of the female authors, as well as the national characteristics of the two linguistic worldviews. The research is aimed at identifying the influence of gender identity on the formation of a spatial model of the world. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that for the first time it has examined the peculiarities of space perception by modern female authors. As a result of the research, we determined the parameters of space perception by the female authors. The analyzed material showed that the main features of A. Matveeva and E. Gilbert’s space are “length”, “volume”, “livability”, “openness”, “evenness” and “spaciousness”. The article highlights the following parameters in the spatial model of the analyzed authors’ world: features of the objects’ location; binary signs of space characteristics; correlation of the category “ours-theirs”; horizontal and vertical perception of space; temporal significance of space. The spatial model of A. Matveeva is built in the form of a straight line; among binary oppositions, “top-bottom” and “in front-behind” prevail; the key spatial loci are apartment, temple, camino and albergo; the discourse describes the space that surrounds her, where she is in the center. In her fictional discourse, the key binary opposition is “heaven-earth”. To achieve the goal, we used the following methods: descriptive, comparative, contextual and a stylistic analysis.

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