Концептуальна метафора гри у повісті П. Хандке «Страх воротаря перед одинадцятиметровим»

Abstract

The paper focuses on determining the peculiarities of the conceptual metaphor of play in Peter Handke’s short novel «The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick». The modern humanitarian discourse views the metaphor not only in its narrow sense (as a means of literary expressiveness) but also in the wide one – as a way of thinking and perception of the world around, which enables defining specific textual strategies aimed at interpreting complex, abstract, and principally incomprehensible concepts with the help of comprehensive, understandable, and mainly visual images. In P. Handke’s novel, the play acquires an ontological status developing into a multi-layer conceptual metaphor and functions as a key to understanding meanings on different levels of text organization – paratextual, informative, compositional, figurative, symbolic, and stylistic ones. The analysis conducted testifies that the play elements and devices can be found in various processes, activities, and people’s behavior because the category of play appeals to universal concepts, such as order, choice, pleasure, strive for results, etc. The play is realized as a complex integrity of worldview characteristics, unity of action, consciousness and communication. In P. Handke’s novel, the play is a model of self-cognition and a strategy of the character’s communication with the world. Since the P. Handke’s novel presents a type of a new subjective protagonist, who is usually a person alienated from the social environment, it is the play that is able to replace the usual behavioral practices and stereotypes in his mind. The play aspect serves as a means of constructing the literary world and helps to convey philosophical ideas. As a conceptual metaphor, the notion of play is actualized in the novel in order to explain complex abstract concepts: a crisis of a person or understanding of human relationships in the modern world. The play discards the principles of determinism and hierarchy being a guarantee of creative freedom and polivariability of events. In addition, the category of play generates an ironic attitude to the surroundings. The play does not intend to stick to reality, but rather to concentrate on urgent problems and stereotypes. The story of Joseph Bloch is a story of growing alienation from reality, exclusion of a person from the social community which has become impossible to comprehend. The play motifs of escape, silence, hide-out, and wordplay are signs of ironic self-identification. The character’s mind reconsiders the values, which highlights the distinct opposition of civilization and nature, rational and mythological, biological and physiological, male and female, etc.