Image and its Transformation in the Structure of Publicist Discourse

Abstract

The purpose of our investigation is to identify the image-transformer in the literary-critical heritage of D. Dontsov.

Research methodology. While solving this goal, the main method was national philosophical hermeneutics. In the course of using this method, the main segments were identified, which make it possible to single out the image-transformation, content-communicative elements, communicative models.

Results. It is proved that the assertion of national identity on the basis of the national idea in the conditions of colonial pressure finds its interpretive expression in the artistic image-transformation of Don Quixote. This image is a verbal message that accumulates radically different communicative meanings – struggles, competitions or, conversely, peace, silence and can be modified in radically different ways. It is special (it can even be transformed into Sancho Panza) and reflects Dontsov’s national-philosophical aspirations. The informational code, laid down in the sense of the eternal image of the Italian hidalgo, is verified, i. e. confirmed (Cervantes), subject to doubt (J. Galan), enriched (with future images of Don Quixote), transformed (Sancho Panza) with the help of implied information.

According to the same communicative model, more widely was modified the ancient image of Prometheus. Content-factual information changes its symbolic character and verbal code: it is defined (ancient myth, Aeschylus), distorted (P. Tychyna, O. Oles, K. Polishchuk), enriched (Taras Shevchenko), reborn in something else (Jack London). The actualization of the image-transformation significantly expands in the micro and macro planes, when this image is implied both within one literary-cry intelligence (Don Quixote) and in the creative work of the publicist as a whole, finding embodiment in other semantically related genres (feature film, film review) (Prometheus).

Novelty.  For the first time in modern journalism, this image was singled out and studied on the basis of essays of a publicist, which are included in the book «Two Literatures of Our Time».

Practical significance. The results obtained can be used to write theoretical and journalistic works on social communications, in which the concept of a publicistic image-transformation is more widely understood as an inshocode communication model and the mechanisms of such modifications are revealed.

Key words: image-transformation, discourse, modification, decoding, communication.