Literary text use as a
sourse of regional studies information in foreign language learning
Sarsenova A.S., Ibragimova K.E.
*Eurasian National
University, Faculty of Philology, Astana 010000, Kazakhstan
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Abstract
Literary text presents cultural and historical
information has been collected in the past centuries. Assigning experience of
the particular culture, a man impresses it; he masters its practices and
becomes a culture-bearer himself. Thus, literary texts are some kind of
"transmission channels" between social-historical and literary-aesthetic
experience, ensuring sustainable development of human culture and preservation
of civilization. Imprinting a divergence in language and culture of the
peoples, ways of thinking and perceiving the word by the people, literary texts
are impressive exponents of the national identity of certain linguistic
culture. In this article, we wrote about signification of methods for
representation of worldview and people’s way of thinking, national identity of
reality in literary texts.
1.
Introduction
Literary text is a
comprehensive cultural and linguistic
phenomenon, the perception
fullness of which depends on the cultural
level of a man, his background
knowledge. The specific feature
of literature is individuality of the writer's work, which finds its linguistic expression in the system of use of linguistic categories that form in its correlation an organic whole with the content and are holders of national and cultural identity. An
important factor of the literary text identity is its involvement in culture
megatext. Any literary text, being immersed in the period cultural diversity,
bears the stamp of the culture of a certain period in history of the society
and culture of a particular people with its traditions, principles, character
and culture of the unique personality of its creator. Literary text is
"the thinnest barometer" that flexibly responds to changes in
spiritual, social and psychological climate of the period in its unity of
emotional and sensual sphere, domestic, intellectual, philosophical and
linguistic.
2.
National identity of
literary text
Language is a
system, which is the key mean of
information transmission and communication
between people and therefore performs
specific functions in culture. Language through
a system of its values and their associations paints a conceptual model of the world in national and cultural colors, so the language
picture of the world of each
individual people is the fact of
its national and cultural
heritage, and has its unique particularity.
National
and cultural particularity is found at all levels of language,
but it is that the national language in the text is present more complete in all its richness and diversity.
Literary text is a
source of national and cultural information.
Being comprehensive and multifaceted
phenomenon, literary text can be viewed
from different perspectives [1,
p.122]:
-
as a source of
linguistic and cultural information: literary
texts reflect a wide variety of
reality aspects, their present
information about the country's
social, political, economic, cultural,
geographical and ethnographic characters, they are a "mirror" of life and culture of the people;
- as a
source of ideological and literary
information: text is a literary
read that includes both author's
interpretation of reality and personal,
emotional attitude of the author and his characters to
the described facts, etc.;
- as a
source of language and linguistic information: any text always composed of linguistic
units of lower levels, which may
reflect direct objective reality
and serve as creation of the author’s ideological and
artistic concept.
A number of extra-linguistic
factors (geographical, economic, ethnic, political, and social)
that define reality national identity in the region reflects
its flash in literary texts of various countries.
Features of geographical
location and relief of countries
are reflected in sitting of fiction
scenario.
The aesthetics
of fiction reflects a refraction of
the region flora and fauna diversity.
Works of literature gives a
vision of the economy characteristics of a particular
region.
The ethnic factor is also
reflected in the literary process and plays a prominent role in it. Ethnic composition
individuality of the population of a particular area is clearly presented
in images of characters.
1) name
of physical
geography objects:
canyon; village;
Pomerania (historical area along
the coast of the Baltic Sea between
the rivers of Oder and Vistula);
2) transport:
a) roads and means
of transportation: federal highways, ordinary roads,
district roads, magnetic levitation train, Civil Aviation and Airports; b) drivers: cowboy;
3) holidays: Good Friday, Easter
Monday, Day of German Unity (3th of october);
4) social and political life: à) educational institutions:
consolidated school, primary school, secondary general school, intermediate
school in German, college-preparatory high school in German.
3. Cross-cultural component
upon studying English literature
The
content of
works of literature, its subject,
themes, problems and characters are also bearers of valuable cultural knowledge the author reworked and
have a significant impact on the language of a literary text, and promote opening and adequate
perception of additional national
and culture semantics of language
units.
3.1 An example:
As
an example,
we turn to the work of George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950).
" Heartbreak House » (1917).
Let’s
get down
to the rules of English etiquette, and how they are violated in the play. As you know, English etiquette
distinguishes demonstration of such qualities as courtesy, correctness, calmness,
helpfulness and tolerance. It is not
accepted to come for a visit
without invitation and without
notification. When you received an invitation, it is important to arrive on time. It is not accepted a visit before
time, the owners may not be ready to receive guests.
The work remarks
show that Ellie, who has come by invitation to the house of Captain Shotover, she was nobody met. She has been
waiting for a long and she has already
got dander up. An old WOMAN SERVANT saw her, in
passing:
“The young lady turns and
looks at her watch. She rises with an air of one who waits, and is almost at
the end of her patience. She is a pretty girl, slender, fair, and intelligent
looking, nicely but not expensively dressed, evidently not a smart idler.
With a sigh of weary resignation, she comes to
the draughtsman's chair; sits down; and begins to read Shakespeare. Presently
the book sinks to her lap; her eyes close; and she dozes into a slumber.
An elderly womanservant comes in from the hall
with three unopened bottles of rum on a tray. She passes through and disappears
in the pantry without noticing the young lady. She places the bottles on the
shelf and fills her tray with empty bottles. As she returns with these, the
young lady lets her book drop, awakening herself, and startling the
womanservant so that she all but lets the tray fall” [2].
THE YOUNG LADY. Waiting for
somebody to show some signs of knowing that I have been invited here.
THE WOMANSERVANT. Oh, you're
invited, are you? And has nobody come? Dear! dear!
The
same situation arises when Lady Etteruord
comes, a daughter of Captain
Shotover, who previously sent them word of her arrival: "Is there anybody home? ... And where is Hesiona?
Is she waiting
for me? Where are the servants? ... no
one is home; there is no one
to meet the guests...".
The
following rule
of entertainment: when you came home,
you shall give an order to send your guests baggage immediately to a room intended for them, and when they
went upstairs, send a servant to help make out their
baggage. Then give them some time to tidy themselves.
Moreover,
the servant who opened the
door shall show guests the stairs
as soon as they arrive, including
the spare room, where guest will be able to take off her hat and tidy her hair or any other thing of
her toilet.
But this
rule is also violated in the play. The owner of a house, Captain Shotover, trips up on Ellie baggage that was thrown right on the stairs,
because Hesiona has not met her: “CAPTAIN SHOTOVER [looking in
from the hall suddenly: an ancient but still hardy man with an immense white
beard, in a reefer jacket with a whistle hanging from his neck]. Nurse, there
is a hold-all and a handbag on the front steps for everybody to fall over. Also
a tennis racquet. Who the devil left them there?” [2]
According to etiquette,
a hostess
shall before the arrival of the guest look over the
room is intended for guest and
make sure personally that it is
ready. During the play action, there should be two jugs of fresh
water and three towels on the rack (two thin and
one rough), and washroom pot for brushing teeth
and drinking glass, wash hand basin and
foot bath in the room.
It should also be said
that in all proper and well-furnished houses, each of these things should necessarily be present in each bedroom: a candle or lamp should
be on the mantelpiece, next to
it - a box of matches. Every morning during room
cleaning, the candle should be replaced with a new and
lamp wick should be cut off so that the
guest can turn on the light at any time, not
calling and not
waiting when the woman servant bring
a candle: “THE CAPTAIN. And had she no friend, no parents, to
warn her against my daughter's invitations? This is a pretty sort of house, by
heavens! A young and attractive lady is invited here. Her luggage is left on
the steps for hours; and she herself is deposited in the poop and abandoned,
tired and starving. This is our hospitality. These are our manners”.
However,
in the play Captain Shotover says the
following: “No room ready. No hot water. No welcoming
hostess. Our visitor is to sleep in the toolshed and to wash in the duckpond”. And he
is going to prepare a room for Ellie himself, breaking another rule: currently, servants should carry out this duty.
Behavior
of
woman servant in the play is stand out.
According to the rules, servants should
not conduct themselves familiarly
with the owners of the house and guests, despite the fact that she is
aware of all the household chores.
However, in the play the old woman servant approaches Ally and Lady Etgeroud, calling
them "kid, my child, my darling,
sweetheart, deary", which is
contrary to the rules of the
relationship between servants and owners: “Take off your hat, ducky; and make yourself at home; Never mind him, doty”.
Thus, an
important source of cultural and
cross-cultural competence is
authentic literary text, an inexhaustible source of information not only about culture of the country of
studied language, but also about character of its inhabitants [3, p.12].
4.
Conclusion
Literary text is
a very comprehensive study
subject. Multi-level system and counterpoint
of the literary text, as well as the need to take into account a large number of various factors such as the linguistic itself (for example, type of text, its category,
units) and extralinguistic when
its determining, causing the pluralism of opinions about
its nature.
Literary text presents cultural and historical
information has been collected in the past centuries. Assigning experience of
the particular culture, a man impresses it; he masters its practices and
becomes a culture-bearer himself. Thus, literary texts are some kind of
"transmission channels" between social-historical and
literary-aesthetic experience, ensuring sustainable development of human
culture and preservation of civilization.
References
1.
Karaseva
Y.A. Literary text as a subject
of conceptual analysis.// Newsletter of RUDN: Line of «Linguistics». Edition 1.
– M.: Publ. of. RUDN, 2011. – P. 122-126.
2.
Shaw B. Selected plays: Translated
from English / Prep., auth. Foreword by A.G. Obraztsova
3.
Novikov L. A. Literary text and its analysis. — M.: Russian, 1988. - P. 12.