THE CONCEPT CHILDHOOD IN POSTMODERNIST AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE

THE CONCEPT CHILDHOOD IN POSTMODERNIST AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE

Author:  Z.M. Chemodurova, M.A. Ialovenko

Affiliation:  Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia

Abstract:  This paper addresses the issue of representing the concept CHILDHOOD in postmodernist
autobiographical narrative based on literary works by P. Auster, Ch. Brooke-Rose, J. Coetzee
and V. Nabokov.
The first part of the article presents the conclusions drawn on the basis of the data collected over the course of etymological and corpus analyses of the concept as well as a survey among native speakers of the English language. The second part of the article offers the textual analysis aimed at identifying additional characteristics of the concept CHILDHOOD represented extensively in postmodernist auto-biographies.
The findings reveal that the results of both parts of the study intersect at some point and prove the validity of a multi-dimensional procedure involved in the examination of the concept.
The results of the undertaken research are also relevant to further exploring the dominant cogni-tive sphere of the autobiographical narrative which, apart from the analyzed concept of childhood, is constituted by the concepts MEMORY and TIME.

Keywords:  concept, childhood, representation, postmodernist narrative, autobiography.

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For citation:  Chemodurova, Z. M., & Ialovenko, M. A. (2020). The concept CHILDHOOD in postmodernist autobiographical narrative. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 2, 41-53.

Pages:  41-53