The category of emotivity in modern Russian literature

Abstract

The article discusses issues related to the qualifying modus category of emotivity and the ways of its expression in contemporary Russian literature of the second and third decades of the 21st century. The category of emotivity closely interacts with the categories of modality and evaluation, while explicating the qualifying subject, which makes it possible to analyze the degree of emotionality and the level of emotive evaluation. A decrease in emotionality and a shift towards a negative assessment of emotives is noted in modern literary texts as well as the predominance of primary, sensual emotions over cultured ones. Examples are given of the texts written by the most readable modern authors. In some stories, the category of emotivity is analyzed in dynamics, that is, a decrease or increase in the emotionality of the characters can be traced. In other works, emotionality is considered either in connection with the author’s attitude to what is being reported, or in interaction with life values, which form the emotional state of the characters. It was important to focus on what family and moral values are expressed through emotions. As a means of expressing emotionality, we highlight the vocabulary of emotions with nuclear and central emotive meanings, as well as syntactic and artistic means of their expression, which are often characterized by a peripheral zone of emotivity.