The main aim of the present paper is to describe and analyse forms and functions of absences (or ‘blanks’) in chains of signifiers in nineteenth-century English literature, particularly prose ...fiction. The theoretical framework is built on the theory of reception: the writings of Ingarden and Iser, but primarily the typology of blanks in signifying systems drawn up by Wolf (2005). In this paper, absences are defined as intentional, salient gaps in chains of typical (expected) signifiers (i.e. as a discursive feature rather than one occurring on the story level); they are thus conceived of as part of the implied author’s writing process and support for the primary or secondary theme(s) and meaning of a text. Relishing the experimental nature of their texts, some nineteenth-century authors used blanks as a metafictional tool for describing various topics, as well as a technique mimetic of psychological processes. Lewis Carroll’s Alice novels provide relevant examples of using blanks to add a visual dimension to the written text, thus enhancing their multimodal quality.
This paper describes and analyses the forms and functions of absence (blanks) in chains of signifiers in selected plays of Samuel Beckett. The theoretical approach is based primarily on the typology ...of blanks in signifying systems as devised by Werner Wolf. Absences are defined as intentional, significant blanks in chains of typical (expected) signifiers. In other words, they form part of the discourse, and not of the story level. Therefore, they are a part of the writing process of the implied author and support the primary or secondary meaning(s) of the text. Samuel Beckett uses blanks as a means of foregrounding the difficulty of communication and the unreliablilty and inadequacy of language, which presents a nauseating inevitability that the characters cannot escape. In this way, the theory of absence confirms and supports Beckett's position as a predecessor of postmodernism, and his plays, in turn, present absence and silence as a positive, creative force.
U radu se opisuje i analizira oblike i funkcije odsutnosti (praznina) u lancima označitelja u odabranim dramama Samuela Becketta. Teoretski pristup bazira se ponajprije na tipologiji praznina u ...značenjskim sustavima koju je izradio Werner Wolf. Odsutnosti su u u ovom radu definirane kao namjerne, značajne praznine u lancu tipičnih (očekivanih) označitelja, drugim riječima, diskurzivne su a ne dio fabule. Stoga one tvore dio procesa pisanja autora i podupiru primarni ili sekundarni smisao teksta. Samuel Beckett koristi praznine kao sredstvo ukazivanja na otežanost komunikacije te nepouzdanost i neadekvatnost jezika koji za likove predstavlja tek mučnu nužnost od koje se ne može pobjeći. Time teorija odsutnosti potvrđuje Beckettov položaj preteče postmodernizma, a njegove drame, s druge strane, odsutnosti i tišini daju pozitivno značenje.
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