ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC MEANS CREATING THE IMAGE OF THE CITY (on the example of V. Woolf’s modernist novel “Mrs. Dalloway”)

Abstract

The phenomenon of the city is a complex socio-cultural matter, which is analysed from different points of view in the studies of the humanities. Currently more and more scholars, such as philosophers, literary critics, philologists, linguists, urbanists, psychologists, sociologists, are engaged in analyzing the problem of urbanism both in the field of real life and in the context of literary narratives. It takes place because, since the era of modernism and up to the present day, the linguistic and cultural representation of images of cities by various authors, including V. Woolf, goes beyond a simple toponymic description. The main aim of this article is to analyze the linguistic means that create the image of the city as one of the fundamental problems of modernist literature on the example of the novel “Mrs. Dalloway” by V. Woolf. In this novel, London is described as a concentration of individually perceptual, cultural, social, geographical, and historical aspects, that generally create an authentic and individual urban context of the author. The article also provides an overview of onomatopea and toponyms –linguistic units and significant elements of the urban context, because by using them the author not only creates the linguistic and cultural image of London, but also portrays this city as a prism through which the characters perceive reality and as a translator of the characters’ inner feelings and experiences.