Abstract
The anthropomorphic depiction of animals bearing allegorical meanings is the well-represented and actively demanded bestiary of world literature. It reflects the mythological thinking of writers and is an integral part of the worldview basis on which literary works are based. Bestiary images in the artistic text acquire the status of universal representative symbols. This study discusses bestiary images in novelistic works of Austrian writers, Franz Werfel (1890-1945) and Elias Canetti (1905-1994). Using the semiotic approach, the researchers define a range of images and meanings that are related to these two writers as representatives of the era of historical upheavals and individual authorial purposes that reflect the basis of the worldview of each of them. A bestiary image in a literary text can function as an iconic sign, which, on the one hand, reflects the material object in its materiality, and on the other hand, contributes to the emerging of "new", constructed by analogy, aesthetic reality. The similarity to the referent, in this case, is included in the overall system of ontological values. An iconic sign, after Ch.S. Pierce, refers to a simple sign based on the similarity to a thing and participating in the creation of symptoms of a higher order – symbols. Bestiary images in a literary text acquire the status of universal representative characters. The functioning of animal images in the text, their nomination, combinatorics, communication with the elements, time periods, and behavioural patterns are the way of the study of the philosophical foundations of the author's world picture. Canetti’s bestiary is represented by metaphorical images of a monkey, a cat, a pig, and a tortoise, which are used as a tool for analysing various psychic and psychological states of the characters of the novel "Blinding" (Die Blendung, 1931-1932). Multiple forms of anthropopathy and zoomorphism are based on the writer's attitude towards the initial "equality" of man and animal. The study of zoopoetics (the term of J. Lacan) of Werfel’s novel "Barbara, or Piety" (Barbara oder die Frömigkeit, 1929) helps to reveal the axiological foundation upon which the writer constructs his novels. The functioning of images of animals, a horse, for example, is related to the semantics of sacrifice that is rethought and acquiring new meanings in a new historical context. Composite images connecting different characteristics and associated with various natural elements are important. It is apparent that the study of the works by Werfel and Canetti, given the iconic nature of bestiary images, seems relevant to detect common patterns of development of European literature and culture of the first third of the 20th Century.
Highlights
The combination of the anthropomorphic and the zoomorphic is a permanent way of creating bizarre, but emotionally and communicatively filled images in literature
Comparative methodology aimed at establishing patterns, trends and general principles of image functioning in literary texts written within the same era and one national culture allows considering general patterns of the figurative structure of the novels of Austrian writers of the early twentieth century — Werfel and Canetti
The comparison is carried out firstly at the level of the types of bestiary images presented in the texts of the novels "Barbara or Piety" and "Blinding", since the very fact of the presence or absence of zoomorphic figures related to a particular element emphasising certain meanings is important
Summary
The combination of the anthropomorphic and the zoomorphic is a permanent way of creating bizarre, but emotionally and communicatively filled images in literature. J. Derrida wrote in "Grammatology" that "from the ancient animal fable to a change in the relationship between man and the beast of the times of Louis XIV and Descartes ... An animal is used to interpret man, but without limitation or fear" (Derrida, 2000, 189), associated with respect for human nature. Attempts to systematise bestiary images began in the history of art rather early and always led to interesting and significant observations. A classic work by C. de Plancy "Infernal Dictionary" that was published in France at the beginning of the 19th Century and has been republished a huge number of times may be used as an example
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