TYPOLOGY OF THE FORCES OF NATURE IMAGERY IN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH POETIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article develops a typology of the forces of nature imagery in contemporary English poetic discourse, proceeding from a number of criteria. The imagery of the forces of nature is a product of literary reconceptualization of knowledge about the elements of nature, namely fire, water, air, and earth, as well as about a number of natural phenomena and calamities generated by them. As a consequence, writers and poets resort to creating verbal and non-verbal images of the forces of nature conveyed by a number of verbal and non-verbal means in contemporary English poetic discourse along with symbolic senses they construe. Image of the force of nature is a multimodal construal embracing preconceptual, conceptual, verbal, as well as non-verbal facets. Verbal and non-verbal (visual, auditory, tactile and/or kinetic) codes foster the analyzed imagery formation. Formal facet of the forces of nature imagery covers a number of separate images of the forces of nature, which in their meaning-making facet are a sense complex of a variety of poetic images, whose main foci are the images of the elements. These foci, being sense bundles, accumulate a number of images of the forces of nature including natural calamities, among which there are: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, snowstorms, tornados, avalanches, heavy rains, floods, fires, and typhoons. Moreover, the article discusses images related to ecological problems, i.e. global warming and climate change. As to the extent of novelty the images of the elements of nature are archetypal, stereotypical, idiotypical or kenotypical. Conceptual and semantic structures of the forces of nature images foster their division into the images of tranquil states of nature, those of natural disasters, global warming, and climate change. In terms of their form, all images of the forces of nature are multimodal and can be installation, digital, and digitalized.