Metaphoric Interpretation of Communicative Values in Today’s Flash Fiction

Abstract

Referring to literary texts, this article considers the possibilities of systematisation and interpretation of the values of Russian culture. For specialised analysis, the author chooses flash fiction by Denis Dragunsky, Mikhail Shishkin, and novel prose by Pavel Krusanov, Alexey Slapovsky, Alexey Salnikov, and Maria Stepanova. The purpose of the research, which is carried out within the field of axiological stylistics, is to identify relevant communicative values with the help of the latest Russian prose. A brief outline of the politicisation and depoliticisation of the Russian language and basic values of culture provides a general idea about the basic values on the time scale of the twentieth and twenty-firstcenturies. The coordination of stylistic and linguacultural methods of analysis identified a strategy of word-centrism, which is common for the authors chosen and finds its expression in the formation of an open supra-textual lexical paradigm. Each component of the paradigmatic row nominates a communicative value and at the same time acts as an object of the author’s metaphorical interpretation. The verdict on the “dead” language of the totalitarian era and the “stillborn” language of modern mass literature, full of viruses of vulgarity, profit, and consumerism, is accompanied by the construction of a detailed metaphor of the road, which makes it possible to put forward a socially significant task of linguo-axiological construction. Based on metaphorical diagnostics of speech existence, there are distinguished numerous axiological constants, i.e. a living language and a living word. Not “the only true” word, but a word charged with emotional energy should become an instrument of linguo-axiological construction, which is to be carried out on the basis of creative use of language as a system of possibilities. The ethnotype of a real Russian writer is formed, which is contrasted with the linguacultural type of a successful word seller. The Russian writer, who selflessly serves the Russian language, is to pave the way to a living language by creating texts, which would continue the traditions of classical Russian literature as an imperishable national value.