Allusion as a call for humanism

The article considers allusion as a means of searching for universal human qualities and problems, as the problems of human are global and their solutions must be considered from the world point of view. In the article is wrote views of scientists about the allusion and humanism. The article also considers problems of interrelation between allusion and intertextuality, the link between allusion and humanism, the purpose of using allusions in literature and the ideas of linguists about them. Also, in the article is wrote some examples of allusions from the books.

Аннотация статьи
humanism
allusion
humanity
intertextuality
indirect indication
Ключевые слова

Allusion as a stylistic device has been actively studied since the twentieth century, and is actively used in modern fiction. The word allusion appeared in the XVI century, but became relevant in the twentieth century.

Initially, the allusion was considered as a rhetorical figure. The term "allusion" goes back to the Latin "alludere" (from "ludere" – "play, joke", "hint"). The direct source of the word allusion was the late Latin "alusion", which comes from the Latin verb "ludo" – "I play".

During the time of F.Bacon (1561-1626), this term referred to any symbolic similarity in allegory, parabola or metaphor, so criticism highlighted along with "descriptive", "representative" and "aluzive" poetry. And only since the beginning of the XVII century, according to G. Bloom, developed the only correct meaning of allusion as an indirect, hidden reference that contains a hint.

In literature, allusions are used to link concepts that the reader already has knowledge of, with concepts discussed in the story. In the field of film criticism, a film-maker's intentionally unspoken visual reference to another film is also called an homage. It may even be sensed that real events have allusive overtones, when a previous event is inescapably recalled by a current one. "Allusion is bound up with a vital and perennial topic in literary theory, the place of authorial intention in interpretation", William Irwin observed, in asking "What is an allusion?" [12].

In the most traditional sense, allusion is a literary term, though the word has also come to encompass indirect references to any source, including allusions in film or the visual arts [11].

Without the hearer or reader's comprehending the author's intention, an allusion becomes merely a decorative device. Allusion is an economical device, a figure of speech that uses a relatively short space to draw upon the ready stock of ideas, cultural memes or emotion already associated with a topic. Thus, an allusion is understandable only to those with prior knowledge of the covert reference in question, a mark of their cultural literacy [11].

Linguists who studied the problems of allusion – G. bloom, I. R. Galperin, E. M. Dronova, V. N. Voloshinov, I. V. Gubbenet, M. I. Kiose, R. H. Volpert, Kilbride, I. V. Arnold, E. A. Vasilyeva, R. Bart, N. Yu.Novokhacheva, K. Perry, M. D. Tukhareli, E. V. Rosen, Z. Porat and others. Modern linguistics defines allusion as a stylistic device, a reference to a well-known fact that requires a lot of knowledge to understand and as one of the components of intertextuality. However, some linguists consider allusion differently.

For example, according to Halperin, an allusion is an indirect indication of some historical, mythological or biblical fact. He also believes that allusion is a means of transferring facts to a new text [2].

By definition K.Perri, a literary allusion is an explicit or implicit reference to another literary fact or text that is easy to recognize and understand [3].

The problem of defining allusions in linguistics was acute. Every linguist and every reader perceives allusion in their own way. Either as an indirect reference, or as a deliberate use of certain words in the text [4]. But now modern linguistics has defined allusion as a stylistic device, rather than an indirect or deliberate indication.

The Oxford dictionary notes the following meaning of the term allusion: 1) language play, word play, pun; 2) symbolic use or comparison; metaphor, allegory; 3) covert, implied or indirect meaning; occasional or of secondary importance.

Many Russian linguists consider an allusion as a stylistic figure that contains either a citation, or a reference to a literary, historical, mythological, religious or political situation, a fact, a person, fixed in written sources or in conversational speech.

According to I. S. Khristenko, an allusion is a type of parody which does not imply the stylistic means of the original source and does not seek for destroying the aesthetic value of the works parodied; it is a paraphrase of the text, which sets out the initial "high" the text "low" style.

By definition E.M. Dronova the study of allusion can be carried out within the study of cross-cultural relations, intertextuality problems, concern the areas of stylistics, phraseology, translation studies, as well as have other reference points [5].

A slightly different interpretation is proposed by B. M. Gasparov, according to whom allusion is borrowing only certain elements of the pretext, and the whole statement or string pretext, correlated with the new text, present in the last implicit.

Following M. I. Kiose, allusion is considered as both a stylistic device and its result. The method of allusion (hint, indirect indication) is quite common and is of great importance in creating images-rich texts of different genres, contributing to the increase of their emotional and evaluative content.

According to the definition of a large encyclopedic dictionary, allusion (lat. allu-sion-hint, sharpness) - a stylistic figure, a hint, by means of a similar-sounding word or mention of a well-known real fact, historical event, or literary work [6]. A. P. Kvyatkovsky interprets similar opinion of allusion as "a hint, the use in speech or in a work of art of a common noun expression, which is a hint to a well-known historical, literary or household fact".

Allusion is not just a stylistic device. Referring to some well-known fact, the writer may mention another very important problem that even the whole world is concerned about. Based on this, the allusion has a very deep meaning and complex character when used.

In addition, allusion is sometimes considered as "a way to create an implicit meaning in a new text" [7]. According to W. Harris, to the concept of "allusion" is often given specially created definitions that would meet the interests and goals of a particular study" [7].

Allusion serves as a certain "bridge" which connects the previous with the next and is a kind of way of turning thoughts to the past and helps to comprehend and categorize knowledge about the world.

The purpose of using allusions is to enrich the elementary utterance and the entire work with accompanying knowledge and experience [16]. In this case, allusion plays the role of an economical way to actualize the history and literary tradition [12]. The use of allusions gives the works integrity and completeness, i.e. it is related to the aesthetic side of the work. An allusive word acts as a sign of a situational model, from which the text that contains the allusion is correlated using associations. Thus, there is an interaction between literary and artistic works, called the allusive process.

William Irwin remarks that allusion moves in only one direction: "If A alludes to B, then B does not allude to A. The Bible does not allude to Shakespeare, though Shakespeare may allude to the Bible." Irwin appends a note: "Only a divine author, outside of time, would seem capable of alluding to a later text" [13]. Allusion is now used in various genres of literature as well as in colloquial speech, as a reference or hint to some secondary fact. This fact can be a product, a name, an image, a term, and other things that even the whole world understands. And due to this, allusion has another mission-the unification of different cultures. Culture is all that we see around us, and all that a person has to deal with. Culture is also expressed in the text, in the language of a person. As V. A. Maslova notes, " the text is the true junction of linguistics and cultural studies, since it belongs to the language and is its highest tier, at the same time the text is a form of culture existence [9].

It should be noted that the problems of humanization are one of the most important problems for humanity. Because people are more interested in personal feelings than in humane qualities such as kindness, humanity, compassion, charity, love, and complacency.

Allusion and humanism are linked, because allusion can be used as a means to understand the concept of humanity on a global scale, as well as to correlate the culture of different countries.

For example, the Parable of the good Samaritan (the Parable of the good Samaritan, the Parable of the merciful Samaritan) is one of the famous parables of Jesus Christ mentioned in the gospel of Luke. It tells about the charity and selfless help to a person in trouble from a passing Samaritana representative of an ethnic group that Jews do not recognize as co-religionists. According to some theologians, this parable shows that "examples of human kindness are found in all peoples and in all faiths, that the Law and commandments of God are fulfilled by people of various nationalities and different faiths". The name "Good Samaritan" ("Good Samaritan") has often been used and is used by charitable organizations and has generally become a household name for a kind and selfless person who is ready to help anyone who gets into trouble [10].

Such biblical allusions can also be found in T. Morrison's novels, in which She wrote about the lives of African-Americans and the problems of racism that they faced in the early twentieth century.

Starting with the second novel "Sula", Tony Morrison uses a huge number of quotes and allusions from the Bible. All African-Americans are very religious. Their commitment to the Bible and other sources of Christian literature has always been their national characteristic. This is evident primarily in the biblical names that African-Americans have given and are giving to their children. The connection with the Bible in Tony Morrison's novels can be traced in the names of the main characters (Sula, Hannah, eve, Shadrack), in the image of Sula (the connection with Cain and Jesus Christ). In the Song of Solomon, both the title of the novel and the names of the heroines (Pilate, Hagar, Ruth, Corinthians, and Magdalene) are taken from the Bible.

In Toni Morrison's novels, it can be said that allusions are used by the author to draw analogies between her novels and other works, with the Bible, to enrich and reveal the images of the characters in the novels.

T. Morrison, in his novels, tries to convey the problems of racism that affected African-American society, in particular what black women had to go through at that time.

For example, in the novel "the bluest eyes" it is said about a girl who was abused by her father.

T. Morrison, in his rather complicated way, comes to the conclusion that in the unbearable conditions in which blacks lived in those distant years of the first half of the twentieth century, they could not Express their feelings of love and affection without cruelty, and the pain they experienced at the same time is "the result of pathology". To solve these problems, T. Morrison used various quotes from the Bible, including names, to reveal the identity of their characters and different allusions to convey the main idea to readers.

For example, one of the allusions from T. Morrison's novel "the bluest eyes": "We had dropped our seeds in our own little plot of black dirt just as Pecola's father had dropped his seeds in his own plot of black dirt".

Unfortunately, such incidents still occur today.

Allusion is a means of searching for the universal human qualities of humanity in the entire world's literary language, text, and even music. And the problems of humanization today are in the first place, since the whole of humanity depends on it. Therefore, we can say that allusion does not only perform an intertextual function in the text, it has its own purpose when used and performs another important function that with help readers understand global human values and problems.

Текст статьи
  1. Gracian B. Wit, or the Art of a sophisticated mind // Spanish aesthetics: Renaissance. Baroque. Education. - Moscow, Art, 1977. – pp. 169-464.
  2. Galperin I. R. Text as an object of linguistic research. - M., 1981 – 139 c.
  3. Perri C. (1978). On Alluding. Poetics 7. Pp. 289-307.
  4. Mamaeva, A. G. the Linguistic nature and stylistic functions of allusions: an autoref. dis. ... Cand. Philol. sciences. - Moscow, 1977. – 24 p.
  5. Dronova E. M. (2004). Problems of translation of the stylistic device of allusion in Anglo-Irish literature of the first half of the twentieth century [Problems of translation of the stylistic device of allusion in Anglo-Irish literature of the first half of the twentieth century]. No 1. Pp. 83-86.
  6. Large encyclopedic dictionary. 1991. – 142.
  7. Arnold K. V. Semantics. Stylistics. Intertextuality: Collection of articles. – SPb.: St. Petersburg publishing house. UN-TA, 1999. - 443c.
  8. Gianina N. And. Stylistic device of allusion in English-language print advertising: abstract. dis. ... Cand. Philol. of Sciences, St. Petersburg., 1998. – 16 p.
  9. Maslova, V.A., Cultural Linguistics Textbook. Student's guide. Higher. Studies' institutions. Moscow: publishing center "Academy", 2001.
  10. Bishop Hilarion (Alfeyev) "Who is my neighbor?". About the merciful Samaritan. Week 25-I on Pentecost Holidays Archived copy from November 28, 2009 on Wayback Machine // Orthodoxy and the world, 25.11.2007
  11. a b c Preminger & Brogan (1993) The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton University Press.
  12. Irwin, "What Is an Allusion?" Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 59 (2001).
  13. Gasparov B. M. Language, memory, image: linguistics of language existence (New literary review, Moscow, 1996)
  14. Kiose M. I. Linguocognitive aspects of allusions: based on the material of English and Russian journal article titles. (2002).
  15. Nikashina N.V., Suprun N.D. Allusion as a stylistic device in English-language literature. Institute of foreign languages peoples’ friendship University of Russia 10-2A.
Список литературы