LEXICO-STYLISTIC MEANS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CRISIS REPRESENTATION (BY CECILIA AHERN’S NOVEL THE TIME OF MY LIFE)

Abstract

The article deals with the phenomenon of psychological crisis and its representation in psychological fiction. The work of the modern English novelist Cecilia Ahern The Time of my Life was chosen for the analysis. The concept of psychological crisis is viewed through the prism of the protagonist’s reaction to the separation as a kind of a personal loss. The research of the individual author style is focused on the set of lexical, stylistic and compositional means used to actualize the mentioned above concept in the novel. Personification as a key stylistic means is applied by the writer to create an image of the protagonist’s life. A variety of depicting and characterological details serve to trace the evolution of the personage named Life, in correlation with the changes that occur in the protagonist’s consciousness, in her life perception. Another set of details is used to show different manifestations of the crisis disregard: neglected apartment, unhealthy food, inability to maintain a normal relationship with friends. The use of key words, their repetitions in different contexts alongside with flashbacks and their role in the composition of the novel are studied. The implicit details, symbols and metaphors indicating different stages of psychological crisis overcoming (from refusal and stagnation to acceptance and acting) are also analyzed.