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Threats and challenges of the modern dystopia. The linguistic reality of Elena Chizhova’s novel ‘The Sinologist’ [‘Kitaist’]
https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2018-6-69-91
Abstract
The article is devoted to reconstruction and analysis of the mental and linguistic models of Elena Chizhova’s dystopian novel The Sinologist [Kitaist]. A thesaurus of the novel is compiled in order to study its core concepts, and none more important than ‘ideology’, semantically linked with other entries in the thesaurus. It is in the novel’s dystopian dimension that the author models modern society’s biggest scares and challenges, focusing the reader’s attention on the social calamities of the 20th century, including the aftermath of World War II. The mentality of the dystopians is perceived as a threat to the nation’s psychological and social-cultural wellbeing. The totalitarian regime, shown by Chizhova at the moment of its bleak decline, is ruining society’s integrity, causing national extremism and social inequality, and provoking a new linguistic reality to the detriment of the true linguistic identity.
Keywords
Supporting agencies: Russian Science Foundation (project No. 17-78-30029)
About the Author
E. M. Lutsenko
Russian State University for the Humanities;
Russian Presidential Academy of National ;Economy and Public Administration
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Elena M. Lutsenko – Candidate of Philology
6/1 Miusskaya Sq., Moscow, 125993
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Review
For citations:
Lutsenko E.M. Threats and challenges of the modern dystopia. The linguistic reality of Elena Chizhova’s novel ‘The Sinologist’ [‘Kitaist’]. Voprosy literatury. 2018;(6):69-91. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.31425/0042-8795-2018-6-69-91
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