Article

Name: The Expulsion of Inverted Commas: Functions of Italics in E. Vodolazkin’s Novel “Justification of the Island”

Authors: Marina A. Lappo

Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

Abstract:

Italics in E. Vodazkin’s novel “Justification of the Island” is a part of the system of artistically labeled typographical means that set a certain angle of reading the text.

In addition to italics, this system includes inverted commas, capital letters (capslock), different typographical alignment (width alignment, left margin alignment) of different text fragments, as well as letters in the initial word in narratorial parts.

It is proved that italics (or, more precisely, the text elements highlighted by it) in the considered work, forming a special “text in the text”, fulfills integrative and meaning-forming roles.

The article analyses two leading tasks of italics in the text of the novel: 1) marking of proper names and 2) marking of someone else’s speech, quotations, including sa-cred books. This use of italics has a substitutive character, as italics in the novel displaces normative inverted commas and symbolises both the absence of inverted commas in ancient texts and the tendency to eliminate inverted commas in modern scientific and artistic prose (in particular, due to the new technical capabilities of computer typing). Such use of italics corresponds to the previously noted creative attitude of the writer, described as “historical inauthenticity” (M. Lipovetsky) or “attitude to narrative overcoming of time” (V. I. Tyupa).

At the same time, the analysis of the text has shown that this use of italics is not total: the text contains both inverted commas and unquoted quotations/direct speech without a dash as a cue mark. It has been established, firstly, that fragments where both the above-mentioned functions of inverted commas in the usual case are combined should be recognised as inversions: the use of inverted commas an antiquity-styled, i.e. fake, text. Secondly, italicised elements not only indicate quotations and proper names, but also perform the function of actualisation, marking the logical accent.

The special tasks of the italicised elements include, for example, marking the original thinking of the hero (occasionalisms, language play) or dynamic processes in the life of society (neologisms, new phraseology), creating an ironic subtext, etc.

Keywords: italics, inverted commas, cohesion, graphic emphasis, logical accent, semantic domi-nance of the text, “someone else’s word”, E. Vodolazkin, “Justification of the Island”

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