Monological Speech Methods of Solving the Internal Conflict of a Character (Based on the Material of V. V. Nabokov’s Novels ‘King, Queen, Knave’, ‘Camera Obscura’, ‘Despair’)

Abstract

The concept of internal conflict is concretized in psychology and literary criticism. However, the problem of linguistic embodiment of a character’s inner speech remains insufficiently studied. Within the framework of text linguistics, internal conflict is considered as a subjective linguistic factor of text formation, chosen by the author to most adequately reflect the contradictions of the character’s thinking in the described situation. The article aims to determine the speech methods and linguistic means of expressing and resolving the internal conflict in the monologues of the main characters in the series of novels by V. V. Nabokov. The article analyzes the main types of monologic speech of the characters: the internal monologue in the novel Camera Obscura, the polytypic monologue in the novel King, Queen, Knave, integrating direct and free direct speech, and the stream of consciousness in the novel Despair. We revealed a three-component syntactic structure of communicative registers in the implementation of an intrapersonal conflict, where, depending on the type of monologue, there is noted an emotional reaction to what is happening, or sensible comprehension of the existing state of affairs, or an impulse to reconsider or change the conflict situation. The paper notes binary oppositions of properties inherent in an internal conflict, shows the role played in the formation of internal contradictions by linguistic factors such as negation, opposition, comparison as well as emotional, evaluative, and expressive elements. Particular attention is paid in the article to ways of resolving the conflict in terms of linguo-pragmatic parameters: rational and emotional, abnormal and stereotypical, real and unreal.