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LANGUAGE PLAY IN R. GAVELIS' SHORT STORY "THE DOVE OF PEACE"

Publication at Faculty of Arts |
2017

Abstract

The report talks about a short story called "The Dove of Peace" by one of the most famous Lithuanian writers of the 20th century Ričardas Gavelis. Although usually the prose writer is presented as a representative of the intellectual novel, his short stories are interesting too.

Gavelis started his literary path with works of exactly this genre. According to philosopher L.

Donskis, Gavelis was a unique case for the simple reason that out of all the contemporary Lithuanian authors he was probably the only natural born polemicist, an intellectual provocateur and a consistent social and cultural critic.The meaning of Gavelis' works has been sufficiently discussed, however, in terms of language his texts have been reflected upon rather timidly. Professionalism was very important to the prose writer.

He raised very high demands for himself and most likely others. This exact thought had encouraged an overview of the author's text in light of its' abundant language.Rare words and archaic phrases are scarcely avoided in the short story "The Dove of Peace", sometimes even argonistic lexicality is used.

Phraseologisms are embedded into the text's fabric in a very interesting way, which, left with the original meaning, adds new implications. As a result, not only does the semantic plateau of the text become enriched, but also a distinct style is developed.

On the other hand, a conscious "beading" of the text from selected pellets can be noticed if read attentively. A question occurs, does the author deal with this self-imposed objective? After analysing the text, it is safe to make certain generalizations.The aim of this report is ot only to uncover the undeniable fact that the author's vocabulary is broad and interesting.

It is also an attempt to evaluate how much the reader is provoked intellectualy and what kind of influence does uch play on language impose on the work's literary value.