Linguistic narratology of ludic literary forms: An idiogenre aspect

Abstract

This article provides theoretical and methodological foundation for linguistic narratology of ludic literaryforms. This new area of research is aimed to (i) characterize ludic models of fictional narrative from a linguisticperspective; (ii) ascertain the specificity of ludic techniques in contemporary literary narratives; (iii) define a rangeof linguistic means producing ludic effects with regard to ludic text- and sense-making in literary text. The paperclams that ludic literary forms are the result of various fictional games. The research views ludic literary formswithin the bounds of the intentional, immanent, and receptive perspectives of literary text study. In termsof the intentional viewpoint, ludic literary forms are considered as deconventionalized literary structures whichoriginate due to breaking-up conventional genre-bound narrative patterns with further elaboration of new onesthrough their numerous transformations. According to the immanent approach, ludic literary forms are distinguishedby structural and semantic emergency. From the receptive standpoint, such literary forms are defined by the nonprototypicalinterpretation, which results in the reconstruction of new, emergent senses and inferences. In Coetzee'snovels, ludic literary forms are created due to the manifestation of psychofictional, metafictional, and autofictionalgames. Narrative gaming reveals itself via two facets – text- and sense-making. Accordingly, in Coetzee's fictionthree types of ludic literary forms were singled out: psychonarrative, metafictional, and autofictional. The paperperforms a linguistic and poetic analysis of such literary forms in terms of the "nodal points" technique andwith reference to a system of linguistic signals of psychofictional, metafictional, and autofictional games.