Литература народов стран зарубежья | Филологический аспект №6 (50) Июнь 2019

Отражение сенсорного восприятия в романе Рэя Брэдбери «Вино из одуванчиков»

Лукашук Майя Дмитриевна
студентка магистратуры кафедры теории языка, литературы и социолингвистики, Институт иностранной филологии, Крымский Федеральный Университет имени В. И. Вернадского, РФ, г. Симферополь
Научный руководитель Мазина Елена Николаевна
канд. филол. наук, доцент кафедры английской филологии, Институт иностранной филологии, Крымский Федеральный Университет имени В. И. Вернадского, РФ, г. Симферополь

Аннотация: Настоящее исследование посвящено анализу особенностей отражения сенсорного восприятия действительности в романе Рэя Брэдбери «Вино из одуванчиков». Цель данной статьи состоит в изучении сущности понятия «сенсорика», его структуры; в определении специфики творческого метода писателя; в исследовании основных сенсорных образов романа; в выявлении роли таких важных элементов художественной системы произведения, как вкус, запах, звуковые ассоциации, тактильные ощущения и определении стилистических приемов, используемых для их выражения. Данная работа демонстрирует, как Р. Брэдбери достигает сенсорного эффекта, используя различные стилистические средства, такие как эпитеты, сравнения, метафоры, персонификации.
Ключевые слова: Рэй Брэдбери, сенсорика, чувственное восприятие, «Вино из одуванчиков», стилистический прием

Lukashuk Maya Dmitrievna
master’s student at the Department of Theory of Language, Literature and Sociolinguistics, Foreign Philology Institute, V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Russia, Simferopol, maya.lukashuk@gmail.com
Scientific advisor Mazina Elena Nikolaevna
Cand. Sci. (Philology), Associate Professor at the Department of English Philology, Foreign Philology Institute, V.I. Vernadsky Crimean Federal University, Russia, Simferopol, mazina@i.ua

Abstract: The current research studies the reflection of sensory perception of reality in Ray Bradbury’s novel "Dandelion Wine". The aim of this article is to explore the essence of the "sensory" concept, its structure; to study the peculiarity of the author’s creative method; to provide an analysis of the key sensory images of the novel; to identify the role of such important elements of the artistic system, as taste, smell, sound association, tactile sensations and to determine stylistic means, which are used to reflect them. The study reveals how R. Bradbury achieves the sensory effect by using different stylistic means, such as epithets, similes, metaphors, personifications.
Keywords: Ray Bradbury, sensory, sense perception, «Dandelion Wine», stylistic device

In this article, we present the results of the study aimed at the “sensory” concept analysis and determination of the artistic means employed in Ray Bradbury’s novel to create different images related to sense perception (taste, smell, sound associations, tactile sensations).

To reach the goal of the study the following methods were used:

• general philosophical methods of analysis and synthesis, which were applied to analyze the novel and define what stylistic means the author uses in order to express different senses;
• systematic structural and descriptive methods were used in order to describe different images created by the author;
•  cultural-historical approach the aim of which was to define the concepts of "sensory” and “sense perception” in the historical and literary contexts.

Nowadays, the concept of "sensory" is not sufficiently studied. Sensory means the focus on the perception of the material world: the information coming from the sensory organs "here and now", the control of the surrounding area.

We learn about the world around us through the senses: vision (eyes), hearing (ears), taste (tongue), smell (nose), touch (skin).

Sensory perception is «a holistic reflection of the objects, situation, phenomena and events resulting from direct influence» [2, p. 200] of real-world objects on the senses. It has properties of selectivity and contrast.

How does sensory perception happen? First, we feel, perceive the subject using the senses, and then analyze the data and compare to what we have already seen, heard, felt earlier, and then draw up an idea about the subject. The more information we have about the subject, the fuller and deeper our understanding of it becomes. The more we hear, see, touch, feel, the more complete and real idea of the world around us we have.

 We perceive the reality in the form of sensory image of the object. In contrast to the sense reflecting the individual properties of things, perception gives information about the object in its entirety with the direct impact of the object on the senses. The objective basis of perception as «a holistic image» is the unity of various properties of the object. The process of perception involves detection of the object in the perceived field, distinguishing its objective characteristics and their synthesis.

The worldview, including the linguistic one, is based on the study of human ideas about the world. If the world is a person and the environment in their interaction, the picture of the world is the result of processing of the information about the environment and the person. There is no consensus as to who was the first to introduce the term "view of the world ". View of the world is the fundamental concept, which is the body of knowledge about the world and expressing the specificity of man and his existence, man's relationship with the world, the most important condition of its existence in the world.

A specific feature of the sense is its active nature. This property is due to the peculiarities of human interaction with the outside world. It is about using sensitive abilities as consciously directed human activity. The results of the process of perception: sensory impressions, ideas and perceptual images are related, this relation is based on the experience gained. "It is pretty hard to say what in our perception is due to the immediate sensation, and what is the result of the experience and training" [1, p. 25]. Feeling as an element of knowledge stands in close unity with abstract thinking. Perception of the sensory and the mental is a separate category, but its independence is valid only within the framework of the dialectical unity, because the sense assumes the logic and vice versa. "Sensual and rational can be considered as two steps of cognition, not only genetically, but in a purely logical, static plan it is two points, penetrating cognition in all its forms, in all language units, in all stages of its development " [3, p. 82]. Perceptive human activities are focused on the world of objects, which serves as an initial stimulus in this activity: it acts on our senses, sending messages to the subject of perception. "Sensitivity is the ability of a living organism to perceive the action of stimuli from the external and internal environment: temperature, light, taste sensitivity" [4, p. 718].

Sensory language is able to enhance the emotion and artistry of any discourse. That is why a writer’s ability to skillfully reflect his character’s perception of the world, largely, contributes to the aesthetic-cognitive value of his book. In «Dandelion Wine», Ray Bradbury masterly reproduces the discovery of the world by a 12-year-old boy with sharp sensitivity: «…there were some days compounded completely of odor, nothing but the world blowing in one nostril and out the other. And some days, he went on, were days of hearing every trump and trill of the universe. Some days were good for tasting and some for touching. And some days were good for all the senses at once. This day now, he nodded, smelled as if a great and nameless orchard had grown up overnight beyond the hills to fill the entire visible land with its warm freshness. The air felt like rain, but there were no clouds. Momentarily, a stranger might laugh off in the woods, but there was silence...» [2, p. 10]. 

Among the sensory images of the book, visual ones are predominant which is understandable as 90% of information about the world is said to be perceived through the eyes. The author creates striking visual images, which never fail to impress the reader: «The world slipped bright over the glassy round of his eyeballs like images sparked in a crystal sphere. Flowers were sun and fiery spots of sky strewn through the woodland. Birds flickered like skipped stones across the vast inverted pond of heaven» [5, p. 11]. The use of genuine metaphors, an inverted epithet and a simile helps to visualize the picture of the forest. This convergence of stylistic devices is quite typical of the author’s style and is widely applicable when some conspicuous objects, meaningful for the boy, are depicted.

This is how Bradbury describes a dandelion from which the wine is made: «... the golden flowers. The flowers that flooded the world, dripped off lawns onto brick streets, tapped softly at crystal cellar windows and agitated themselves so that on all sides lay the dazzle and glitter of molten sun» [5, p. 12-13]. The metaphors used in this passage show dandelions as a symbol of summer and sunshine. «Dandelion Wine. The words were summer on the tongue. The wine was summer caught and stoppered» [5, p. 13].

Assessing sound matter in the novel, we can identify many examples of sound symbolism:

« ...Wild strawberries, followed by bees which were, no more, no less, said Father, the world humming under its breath ...» [5, p. 10].

«The grass whispered under his body. <…> his toes creaking in his shoes. The wind sighed over his shelled ears» [2, p. 18].

The use of direct onomatopoeia creates the acoustic effect, while the personification enhances the boy’s interpretation of the world as a living being.

Genuine similes not only characterize various sounds through their analogy but also show Doug’s individual auditory perception: «The rocking chairs sounded like crickets, the crickets sounded like rocking chairs» [5, p. 20]. In this context, the author uses chiasmus and repetition of words to attract the reader’s attention to the acoustic features of things.

Transfer of tactile sensations is one of the most difficult, but the author copes with this task. Expressive and surprising to the reader, not previously described tactile images can go together with visual impressions, at the same time highlighting and reinforcing them:

«The tennis shoes felt like it always feels the first time every year wading in the slow waters of the creek and seeing your feet below, half an inch further downstream, with refraction, than the real part of you above water» [5, p. 15].

«Like menthol on your feet! » [5, p. 16].

«The boy looked down at his feet deep in the rivers, in the fields of wheat, in the wind that already was rushing him out of the town» [5, p. 18]. This is how the author describes the sensations experienced by the boy, wearing the new tennis shoes.

It is known that the smell has a more complex brain projection, rather than sight.  Up to thousands of neurons can participate in recognizing one smell. The author focuses on the smells that surround the boy every day: «the smell of fields of wheat and new popcorn and bending hay» [5, p. 28], «a smell of grass and water» [5, p. 29], «a dark-sewer, rotten-foliage, thick-green odor» [5, p. 52] of a wide ravine nearby, etc. Smells help to learn about the world and create the mood.

Quite often, instead of giving a simple description of the smell, the author resorts to metaphors, which enhance the sensory effect: «From every window blows an incense, the all-pervasive blue and secret smell of summer storms and lightning» [5, p. 115]. And that is how, with the help of similes, the writer depicts an old rug: «Smells just like a desert, I bet. All hot and sandy, like inside a mummy case, maybe» [5, p. 80].

The taste is not the first in the sensory list (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste), but it is also very important.

«Hold summer in your hand, pour summer in a glass, a tiny glass of course, the smallest tingling sip for children; change the season in your veins by raising glass to lip and tilting summer in» [5, p. 26].

There are not many descriptions of taste in the novel because taste perception generally receives less attention.

In conclusion it can be stated that the boy’s sensory perception of the world receives the author’s special attention in the novel. The writer abundantly uses epithets, metaphors and similes to build up bright and transparent visual images, to reproduce tactile sensations. Onomatopoeias and personifications are applied to create aural images. Smells are reproduced by means of both literal images and figurative ones, based on tropes. The author’s unusual descriptions remind readers of something in their own childhood, cause some sensory associations. Ray Bradbury did a great job reflecting sense perception of a child, because it gives the text liveliness and strikes a chord in the hearts of those who read the novel.

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